THE ADVENT: Thanksgiving - Justin Todd

Welcome to the window.

Who's excited?

It's Christmas.

Come on.

Well, I'm excited too.

And hey, for those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Justin Todd.

I'm the campus pastor here at downtown.

It's so good to see everyone.

And like I said, it is Christmas.

It is now officially okay to be pumped about Christmas, right?

Like Thanksgiving's gone now, like you're not being judged if you listen to Christmas music too early.

You're not your neighbors aren't judging you if you've got a wreath on your door already.

Like it's officially okay.

Everyone else can back off.

Amen.

Awesome, man.

Well, hey, uh, man, with it being Christmas season, this means that we have Christmas Eve services coming up.

Come on now.

Who's excited about Christmas Eve?

Some of you.

Uh those of you who maybe have never been, you would have clapped because they are awesome.

And uh with it being the Christmas season in about four weeks, we're gonna have our Christmas Eve services.

This year we have two of them.

We have an early one, it's gonna be at 3.30 p.m., and then we have a later one, which is gonna be at 5.30.

And hey, parents, uh six and below, child care is gonna be available, right?

Child care is gonna be available.

But if you want to register your kid for Christmas Eve services, if they are six and under, just text CKids to 25101.

And for uh all kids six and above, man, they're gonna hang out with us.

Is that cool?

Awesome, man.

So we're excited about Christmas Eve services.

We're excited about the new series we're jumping into today.

Last week, we wrapped up our Holy Spirit series.

Come on now.

How many of you guys enjoyed that series?

I thought Pastor Keith did an incredible job at breaking down something that honestly the Holy Spirit is something that that that is really hard to explain, but I thought he did an incredible job at making it practical, making it understandable.

And for maybe some of you, uh, maybe you had no idea who the Holy Spirit was, and you got a revelation this past series.

And man, we ended it with a bang.

We had a worship night last Sunday night.

Come on now, who was at the worship night last Sunday night?

If you weren't there, uh you missed out.

Uh, but if you weren't there, don't worry.

Uh, we're gonna have more coming up uh next year.

We're gonna have a few of those.

But um if you missed any of the Holy Spirit series, just go check it out on our podcast.

It's gonna be online.

You can check it out on iTunes and all the other tunes.

Uh the podcast are gonna be there.

But today we're starting a new series with it being uh our Christmas season, we're starting a brand new series.

We are actually, as a church, we are in our Advent season, which means we're gonna do an Advent series.

I think it's only right because we're in this season, and uh it actually starts today.

Today is December 1st, which starts the Advent season.

And maybe some of you are in here are like, What is what is Advent?

I'm gonna tell you what Advent is.

Advent simply means the word, the definition of Advent simply means the word coming.

And what we are gonna spend the next four weeks uh doing is we're gonna spend the next four weeks remembering the first Advent or the first coming of Jesus, which is what Christmas is all about.

Jesus in a manger, being born of a virgin.

That's why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of the first coming of Jesus.

But over the next four weeks, we're not just gonna spend uh those four weeks talking about the first coming.

We're actually gonna spend the next four weeks remembering and looking forward to the second coming, amen.

When Jesus comes back and gathers his people and we're all caught up in the heavens with him, amen.

So that's what this whole series, but that's what this whole season is all about.

So those of you who have maybe never understood what Advent is all about, that's simply what it is.

We are remembering the first coming of Jesus, what it meant for us, what Jesus did, and all the things that he did, and then we're looking forward to the second coming.

And this week in our Advent journey, and uh just to say this, we're gonna be in a journey this next four weeks.

So many of you were here for our Exodus series.

We had a church-wide journal that many of you followed through, and we're gonna have the same thing for this Advent journey.

And you can actually go to our Instagram, you can click on the link there, you can go to our website, you can download a PDF journal.

And let me just tell you what this journal is gonna do.

Every single week, we as a church on Sundays, we are going to be talking about what you were actually reading throughout the week.

And I love when we get to do stuff like this, I love when we're all on the same page.

And so go download that journal.

Uh, follow along with us.

It's what we're gonna be talking about on Sundays, and this Sunday today, we're actually gonna kick it off talking about the subject of Thanksgiving.

I think it's only appropriate that that is a subject considering we had Thanksgiving three days ago.

And so we're gonna talk about what it means to be thankful.

We're gonna talk about what we have to be thankful for.

And uh, for those of you who may be wondering what these red tags are about that say Thanksgiving on it, I'm not gonna tell you what they're about yet because it's for the end.

I'm gonna keep you in suspense.

So just hold on to those and then I'll explain that in just a few minutes.

But um man, the subject for today is simply Thanksgiving.

And if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and open up to Luke chapter seven.

Luke chapter, I love the fact that I said if you have your Bibles and I saw people moving to get their Bibles.

Come on, who's got a real Bible in here?

Where are my OG Christians?

Who went to Sunday school?

Yeah?

Awesome.

Man, but if you don't have your Bible, it's okay.

It's 2019.

Well, you got iPhones, you got U version.

Uh, you can open up to that, but if you don't have any of those things, you can just follow on the screen behind me.

But we're gonna be looking at Luke chapter 7, and we're gonna be reading about a story that, man, maybe many of you know or maybe you've heard this story.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

It's about a woman who encounters Jesus, a woman who basically invites herself to a party that she wasn't invited to just to sit at Jesus' feet and just to show Jesus how thankful she was for him.

And we're gonna look at this story and we're gonna pull out some things that we can apply to our lives.

But before we get there, let's go ahead and read this scripture.

So Luke chapter 7, verse 36.

Luke 7:36

This is out of the message version, which is an awesome version.

Uh Luke chapter 7, verse 36 says this one of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal.

Luke 7:36

He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table.

Just then, a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet, letting down her hair.

She dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is, and who was falling all over him.

And Jesus said to him, I love this.

Jesus says to him, Simon, I got something to tell you.

Oh, uh uh, uh, tell me.

Two men were in debt to a banker.

One owed 500 silver pieces, the other 50.

Neither of them could pay up.

And so the banker canceled both debts.

Which of the two would be more grateful?

Simon answers, I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.

That's right, Jesus said.

Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he's still looking at Simon.

He said, Do you see this woman?

I came to your home.

You provided me no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair.

You gave me no greeting.

But from the time I arrived, she hasn't quit kissing my feet.

You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume.

Impressive, isn't it?

She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful.

If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.

Then he spoke to her, I forgive your sins.

And that set the dinner guest talking behind his back.

Who does he think he is?

Forgiving sins.

He ignored them and said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

Man, I love this story.

I love just a story of an underdog, to be honest, but I love this story.

And what we're gonna do over the next 27 minutes and three seconds is we're gonna be looking at this story, breaking it down a little bit, pulling out some pieces, and we're seeing, man, why this woman was so grateful and how she was able to cultivate this attitude of gratitude in her life in her life, and how you and I can do the very same thing in our life.

But before we go any further, let's go ahead and pray.

God, we thank you so much uh just for these last few moments we've had together, God, worshiping your name, singing about what you have done for us.

God, we thank you for this season that we are in, for this advent season, God.

And over the next four weeks we're gonna spend just God remembering what you have done for us, remembering what it meant when Jesus came here and also looking forward to what it's going to mean when he comes back.

And God, I pray, Lord, of these next few moments as we, Lord, talk about thanksgiving, as we talk about what we have to be thankful for, God, I pray that for every single person in this room, myself included, God, that you convict our hearts, Lord, but not just convict us, God, but you encourage us in knowing that we have so much to be thankful for, even if our eyes aren't open to those things.

And God, I pray, Lord, when we leave here, God, that every single one of us in this room would leave with more gratitude, with more thanksgiving than the way that we came in.

And God, I pray that every word that comes out of my mouth will be of you and not of myself.

And I pray that every heart and ear will be open to what you would have to say to us this morning.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Church, so it was it was Thanksgiving on Thursday, right?

And Thanksgiving is always it's a fun time, like you eat really good food, you know, you spend time around family.

Some of you are like, eh, you spend time around family, and you're in this room, but Thanksgiving or holidays in general seems to always be the days that you're put on the spot with a question that you just didn't see coming.

Like those of you who may have been dating someone for a while, you're just eating dinner, and then your aunt's like, hey, so how's so-and-so doing?

We're not together anymore.

We're broke up.

What happened?

I don't want to talk about it.

I don't, I don't know.

We're not together anymore.

Or or or or maybe maybe it's just like you're sitting there, maybe this happened to me on Thanksgiving, and my wife is always amazing at this, but this happened to me.

I I sit down with my Thanksgiving lunch and I immediately take a bite of food.

And my wife, or maybe this happens to you, someone next to you is like, oh, are are we not going to to to say grace?

Are we not going to pray?

We are.

I was just I was just seeing how much I have to bless this food before I pray for it.

Maybe that was you and someone convicted you, but but but maybe some of you, uh, with it being Thanksgiving, or many of you had friends' givings or fams givings, whatever you want to call it, this question always comes up on Thanksgiving, and it's hey, what are you thankful for?

Uh um it's it's not that I'm not thankful, and it's not that you're not thankful, it's just not necessarily on the forefront of your mind.

But when someone asks you that, it's like MySpace all over again.

You have your top things, your top friends, and if you don't say these top things, someone in the room's gonna be offended, right?

So it's like it's like, what are you thankful for?

And and and for me, like I asked that question, like I'm looking around the room, like, um, there's my mom, there's oh, there's there's there's my wife, there's there's there's my son.

Um, you know, I'm thankful for my mom, thankful for my wife, I'm thankful for my wife, actually.

I'm thankful for my mom as well.

You know, we gotta flip-flop those, uh, you know, you know, you know what I'm talking about.

Uh, but man, what are you thankful for?

For a lot of us, it's kind of like a uh, you know, it's not in the forefront of our minds.

And I've talked about this before.

I I grew up in church.

I'm a church kid, was basically born into the church, and I used to go to this thing called Sunday school.

Did anyone go to Sunday school growing up?

Bless you.

So if you don't know what Sunday school is, there's nothing wrong with it, but as a kid, it's like it's as a kid, this is what it was to you.

It's this class you go to that lasts about two hours before you go into big church or adult church that lasts another two hours.

And so you basically have to be on your best behavior for four hours.

Four hours.

You gotta leave your shirt tucked in because your mom gets onto you if you untuck your shirt.

You gotta do all that stuff.

But in Sunday school, around this time of year, there's always a question that my teacher would ask us like, Justin, what are you thankful for?

As a kid, it's like thankful for my dog, I'm thankful for my PlayStation, I'm thankful for my Sega Dreamcast, I'm thankful for my skateboard, I'm thankful for my Air Jordans, my family, of course, you know.

And then, and then, so after it goes past me, there's always this one kid in the class, that the goody two shoe.

Um, James, what are you thankful for?

Jesus.

That's a given, James, but I'm thankful for Jesus and his salvation.

Dude, okay.

All right, man, get out of here.

Making us all look bad.

But as annoying as that was as a kid, like Jesus, it's always the answer in Sunday school.

It's it's the Christian answer, Jesus, to everything.

At the end of the day, I think James was on to something when it comes to Thanksgiving.

At the end of the day, Jesus is the foundation of all thanksgiving.

At the end of the day, Jesus is what is what gives us all these good things.

Because of him, we have a reason to be thankful.

And this is exactly what we see here in this story.

In this story, we have three characters.

You have the woman, the scripture we just read, it said she was the town harlot.

She was an immoral woman, she was a prostitute, basically, in that day and age.

Then you have a Pharisee by the name of Simon.

Simon is a religious leader.

Simon thinks very highly of himself.

Simon is a wealthy man.

He has a lot, he is a rule follower.

And then you have Jesus, the Son of God, merciful, holy, never sinned.

Jesus, the person who's gonna bring forgiveness to the world.

You have all three of these characters in this story.

And this Jesus is allowing this prostitute, this immoral woman, to stand in front of him and basically worship him, to give thanks to him.

And Simon, Simon is honestly like a little offended at this.

Simon reminds me honestly of a lot of Christians who look to their left and their right and judge everyone else.

I can't believe they would wear that to church.

I can't believe that, I can't believe I saw them, you know, with so-and-so and so and so.

A lot of us, I'm I'm guilty of it too.

He's he's judging this woman.

He's judging her.

And here's what I love in this story: Jesus calls him out.

But what I love is that Simon hasn't said a word.

Simon's just sitting there like privately judging.

He's just sitting there like, mm-mm.

If Jesus only knew, and then Jesus is like, hey, Simon, hey, can I tell you something?

Yeah, yeah, anything.

Jesus to tell me.

And Jesus calls him out on his junk.

He calls him out the fact like you, man, you didn't do anything for me.

You think you're better than her?

You did nothing for me, but she has done everything for me.

So my question for you is, is Simon, man, he's he has high status, he has a house, he is a man of wealth.

Why is he not worshiping Jesus like she is?

She has nothing, but Simon in all respects has everything.

Why is Simon not the one at Jesus' feet?

I think when it comes to being thankful for stuff, I think a lot of us can relate to Simon because Simon, I think the reason he wasn't at Jesus' feet was twofold.

I think one, Simon had extreme familiarity.

Simon was very familiar with everything that he had.

Simon was very familiar with the fact that, like, oh man, I have a house.

Like, not everyone has a house.

Like they're in his house.

Oh man, I have a lot.

Like, I'm I'm I'm a rule follower.

Like, you know, I'm I've I've made it.

I'm very familiar with all of my blessings.

In fact, I think Simon was somewhat familiar with Jesus.

They're in Galilee.

This is where Jesus is from.

So Simon probably knew who Jesus was growing up.

Oh, it's just that's just the carpenter's son, Jesus.

That's just the carpenter's son, Jesus.

I also think that, man, when you read the scriptures, when this story takes place, Jesus has already done some miracles and word has got out about Jesus.

And I'm sure maybe Simon witnessed some of those things.

That doesn't mean much because he's familiar with it.

I also think that another reason that Simon wasn't at Jesus' feet is because he suffered from this thing called comparing.

He is comparing his goodness, his good deeds, to her good deeds.

Oh, if Jesus knew who this woman was, he wouldn't let her near her.

Like I'm not, I I I'm nothing like her.

I am nothing like her.

And because Simon in his head thinks that he, because he's a rule follower, right?

Because he's religious, because he goes to church every Sunday, because he opens up U version and reads his devotional maybe twice a week.

He looks at everyone else and is like, I'm I'm better.

I don't need that kind of grace, I don't need that kind of forgiveness.

And so he's very familiar with who Jesus is.

He's very familiar with kind of the extraordinary things in his life.

And if you're taking notes, write this down.

Never let the extraordinary become ordinary.

Never let the extraordinary things in your life become ordinary.

But that just wasn't it, man.

Simon was very, he was proud of who he was.

He was proud that he followed all the rules.

But the thing about this, write this down, is every time we magnify our goodness, we actually minimize God's grace.

Every time we think to ourselves, man, I'm doing really good.

I am a I am a really good person.

I don't need anything.

You know what?

I'm I'm good.

We actually minimize the grace that we need from God.

We actually minimize the grace that has been given to us from God because we begin to think very highly of himself.

You see, Simon thought this is the way the gospel works.

Simon thought that he had to work his way up to God.

So he focused very much following all the rules.

He focused very much on tradition and religion.

But the the thing is, is the the person that he was sitting uh in the room with, the person that he was sitting with, Jesus, actually came to abolish all of that.

Jesus, the kingdom that he brought, is actually, man, we don't have to work our way up to God.

Actually, God comes down to us.

We we and he gives us grace.

We don't have to do anything.

We can't do anything.

We can't do anything to earn this grace.

We can't do anything to earn this forgiveness.

We didn't deserve it.

And then that's that's what's so beautiful.

So at the end of the day, at the end of the day, this reason alone is a reason to remain grateful, a reason to remain thankful that we have this grace that we did nothing to deserve, we did nothing to earn, but yet we were freely given it.

We realize this, it puts us in the same posture as this woman, that Jesus was all that she needed.

For many of us in this room, we need to realize that Jesus, at the end of the day, in order to be thankful, in order to have gratitude, in order to be happy and satisfied, that Jesus is all we need.

Write this down if you're taking notes.

Until Jesus, until Christ is all you have, you will never realize that Christ is all you need.

Until Christ is all you have, you'll never realize that Christ is all you need.

So how do we cultivate this this thought process?

How do we cultivate this attitude of gratitude, this thankfulness, this thanksgiving in our life?

How do we get to the posture that we read about this woman having?

How do we get there?

I want to share with you three things that you can do to cultivate gratitude in your life.

The first thing is this is recognize every good thing I have comes from God.

Recognize every good thing I have comes from God.

James 1:17 says this every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17

Everything we have is a direct correlation to a blessing of God.

All the success that we have experienced in our life up to this point is because of God.

When you read the Bible and you read about these great men of God who did these incredibly successful things and these amazing things, it is solely because of God.

We think about Noah.

Noah's thinking repopulated the earth.

But it was because of a word from God telling Noah to build an ark and that he was going to save his family and he was going to bring all the animals of the of the world to him and that he was going to do great things.

That was because of God.

You look at the Israelites, this great nation.

They were brought out of captivity.

They were once slaves because of God.

Then they wandered the desert for many, many, many, many years until they entered the promised land.

But God provided for them by sending food from heaven.

God, their success will be was because of God.

You look at David, this great king.

David had the courage and the strength to be able to stand in the face of a giant and throw a little tiny rock and ultimately kill this giant.

He had that courage, he had that faith because of God, which ultimately set him on a path to become a man after God's own heart.

You and I experience success.

All the blessings.

In our life are because of God.

Our freedom in Christ is first because of God sending Jesus to us.

We have the Holy Spirit, which we just spent the last four weeks talking about.

Our helper, our helper, our comforter, this thing that gives us supernatural power, we have because of God.

We have a manuscript, the Bible, that helps that we can open it up and read God's words to help us get through life.

All of that comes from God.

Because every good thing we have in our life is because of God.

And because of that, this means that God is a good God.

Do you guys believe that this morning that God is a good God?

God can never be less than good.

God is good every day, every hour, every minute.

He cannot be less than that.

And so a way that you and I can remain thankful in our life is to recognize that everything we have, our job, our ability to work, our family, our heart, like all of our possessions, every blessing, every good thing, man.

This is because of God.

You would not have breath in your lungs without God.

Nothing.

So the first way to cultivate gratitude, thanksgiving in your life is to recognize that every good thing I have comes from God.

The second way to produce thanksgiving in your life, number two, if you're taking notes, is refuse to let what I want rob me of what I have.

Refuse to let what I want rob me of what I have.

Church, there's not one person in this room who doesn't want things.

There's nothing wrong with wanting things.

There's nothing wrong with buying nice things for yourself.

But the thing is, is a lot of us, we want a lot of things.

Like we're constantly thinking about, man, I wish I had a better car.

Like I'm I'm really over my 1998 Honda Civic.

Like I wish I had a better car.

I wish I had a better house.

I wish I had a house with two bathrooms.

I want a house with two bathrooms.

Not one.

Two.

Can I get a witness?

Amen.

I want a house with two bathrooms.

I want to, you know, I want to travel more.

I want, I want new clothes.

I want to do renovations in my house.

I want, I want, I want, I want, I want.

Ecclesiastes 6.9 says this.

Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have.

Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless.

It's like chasing wind.

When you are continually dreaming about the things that you want, when it's all you can think about, the things that you want, it's like chasing wind.

I don't know many of you in here if you've ever tried to chase wind.

Um, it's pointless because you can't catch it.

There's no sense in thinking all the time about something that you want when you don't have it, because it ends up negating everything that you do have.

But it's so easy to look to our left and to our right and look at what other people have and go, man, I wish I had that.

When someone gets a new car, I'll be like, man, I wish I had that.

That I mean seat warmers, that's that's nice.

We live in Florida.

I would use it two days, but those two days, worth it.

Worth it.

We look to our left and our right all the time.

We end up comparing ourselves and what we have to what other people have.

But the thing about comparing is comparing is actually the thief of contentment.

When you spend all of your time comparing what other people have and comparing what you have versus what you don't, you actually lose any sort of contentment with the things that maybe you were once contentment, get content with.

You think to yourself, man, if if if I just had this, then I would be truly happy.

If I just was able to get this, man, this would solve everything.

I would never you remember when you're a kid and you're like, mom, dad, can I please, please, please, please, please, can I please have this?

I'll never ask for another thing in the world if you just give me this, please, please, please, please, please.

Well, we all grew up now and we just got credit cards.

We don't have to ask mom and dad anymore.

If we really, really want something, we think, man, if I just had this and I'll just put it on credit, I won't mind paying the monthly payments because it's it's all I'll ever want after this.

How many of you have ever wanted something so bad, dreamed about something so bad, and you got it, thinking it was going to solve everything, and then like a week later, you're back on Google, Googling something else that you want.

And keep in mind, everything I'm saying, this is convicting to me.

I'm not acting like I have all this figured out.

Ask my wife.

I am the king of like research and like, babe, if we just had we it's it's yes, it's a lot, but we're actually making money if we get this.

It's paying us, okay?

I am the king of compromise with my wife, okay?

So this is convicting to me.

Like it, like it, like it really is.

But we think to ourselves, if we just had this, then I would be happy.

If I just had this, I would be so thankful and everything would be good.

But if you're taking notes, write this down.

I love this thought.

You see, it's not happy people who are grateful, it's grateful people who are happy.

It's not happy people who are grateful, it's grateful people who are happy.

Think of what you have.

Many of us in here, and this is this is what I'm about to say, this is not to be convicting.

We are blessed that we live in a country like America.

Most of us in here, man, we have three meals a day.

Most of us in here, we eat three meals a day, unless you're on one of those intermediate fasts, you eat like one a day.

Whatever.

That's your choice.

We have three meals a day.

Some of us, four meals a day.

Some of us in here, you you have five meals a day, and you probably should eat three meals a day, and you probably should try out intermediate fasting.

Like we, but but it's it's all we have a choice to eat as much as we want.

Man, we live in this great country called America, the USA, where our minimum wage in this nation is actually 32 times greater than the average world makes.

We have so much.

Many of us in here, we uh this is this is America.

We actually upgrade things that are working.

We buy new things that are working, they're refrigerators now with iPads in them.

The other refrigerator, the whirlpool or whatever it was that you had, frigid air, it kept your food cold, just like the refrigerator that is$3,500 more.

But I can watch the news on my refrigerator.

But I could get the weather report when I'm getting ice in the morning and decide if I want hot coffee or if I want cold coffee.

It would solve, I'm making money, people.

I'm making money when you look at it.

We actually upgrade things that are working.

I I'm the king of this, man.

Like an iPhone, I've preached about this before.

Why do I upgrade every year?

I don't know.

It's the new thing to have.

It takes 2.5 megapixels better.

I'm not sticking Olin Mills.

I don't care what my pictures look like at the end of the day, but I'll upgrade my phone because it has this.

But I think I think if you if if many of you, maybe some of you in this room, man, you've been on a mission trip.

And if you haven't been on one, I want to encourage you to look into that this year.

We have mission trips up on our website.

We're going to Zimbabwe, we're going to Africa this year.

Man, there's something about mission trips.

Man, it's amazing because, man, you're going to serve the world.

You're taking the gospel into the ends of the earth, which is the Great Commission, right?

But when you go on a mission trip, something happens to you, actually.

You see, when you go on a mission trip, you you end up encountering a lot of people who don't have a lot of things.

But somehow they're happy.

Somehow they have the best attitude.

Somehow they have an amazing family and they love each other, and they have that they have this thing, and you begin to look at it, and you begin to think to yourself, like, man, I I have so much, but yet so little.

But they have so little and yet so much.

There's something to be said about that.

Here's this is Paul writing in Philippians 4, 11 through 13.

It says, actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally.

I've learned by now to be quite content, whatever my circumstances.

I'm just as happy with little as with much, and with much as with little.

I found the recipe for being happy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the one who makes me who I am.

See if you know anything about the life of Paul, uh, Paul did not really live an easy, plush life.

No, uh God had sent himself down to Paul.

Paul had this incredible encounter with God, and it changed the course of his life, and he spent the rest of his life pursuing and spreading Jesus.

Paul was imprisoned multiple times.

Paul was beat and persecuted multiple times.

He did not live it, he was actually beat so bad in one city for what he believed that the people who beat him thought he was dead and they just drug him outside the city walls.

Well, then Paul comes to and just walks right back in the same city that people just tried to kill him.

Paul didn't live an easy life, but he writes this.

Hey, you know, I've had a lot, I've had a little, I've been full, I've been hungry.

But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the one who makes me who I am.

At the end of the day, do not let what you want rob you of what you have.

At the end of the day, you and I have so much in the one that makes us who we are.

You and I have so much because of grace.

But to have this type of attitude, we have to first and foremost, every day, choose gratitude.

And the third way to cultivate gratitude and thanksgiving in your life is to return all blessing as praise, to return every blessing we get as praise.

Whenever we get blessed with something, our first priority, whenever we get blessed with something, our first priority should be to close our eyes or to just a minute ago, thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this promotion.

Thank you that I was able to buy groceries.

Thank you, thank you, man, that I have a wife to lay next to when I go to bed at night.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You know why?

Because every time we don't turn a blessing back into praise, it actually turns into pride.

Every time we don't turn our blessings back into praise, it actually turns into pride because here's what it does, man.

When we don't recognize that that that God is the one who gave it, and we don't praise God, here's what ends up happening in our head.

Oh, yeah, you know, I worked hard for that.

I I you know I've been putting in extra hours.

I deserve this.

I wanna I want to look at the weather report of my refrigerator, I deserve this.

This is this is me.

Like I I did it me, me, me, me, me.

When you don't turn blessings back into praise, you actually end up having this this like the this entitlement thing that maybe you don't even realize.

Psalm 63, 4 through 5 says this.

I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

You satisfy me more than the richest feast.

I will praise you with songs of joy.

So, how do we become thankful and praise God?

How do we recognize the actual the large blessings in our life?

How do we what actually are those things?

When I was writing this message, I I thought about this.

Um we we have me, Becca and I, we have a 16-month-old little boy who is the best thing that God has ever blessed me and Becca with, and we love him so much.

But as I was writing this, I began to think about the day that Cole was born.

And so uh the pregnancy, man, no complications, like everything, everything was so great.

And then even like when Becca went to labor that that day, it wasn't just like a, you know, there wasn't anything.

We just like drove to the hospital.

I didn't have a bag packed, I was just like, Yeah, give me a second, we pack a bag, you know, and like got a bag packed, got in the car, like, you know, got there.

She was upset, but you know, I had to finish my Chick-fil-A that I was eating.

And uh, so we got to the hospital, like every everything, everything was good, like there wasn't a whole lot of pain, like, you know, it was just everything was good until it came time to actually begin pushing.

And so, if you've ever been in a hospital room when when someone is giving birth, they have um they have two heart rates that you see on the screen.

They have the heart rate of the mother, and then they have the heart rate of the baby who's about to be born.

And every time, every time Becca would push, the heart rate of Cole would drop, like really, really low, and they'd tell her to stop, and they'd wait for it to go back up.

But every time she pushed, Cole's heart rate would go down.

No one seemed really concerned about it, so I'm on the side, just like watching everyone else's reactions.

I'm like, okay, this is normal.

Okay, we're good, we're good.

This happens.

But then I start noticing like people come into the room.

No one's saying anything.

They're just like, hey, are you good?

Are you good?

Becca, are you good?

Do you want some more?

You know, what you know, everything's good, but I start noticing there once was three people in the room.

Now there's like nine or ten, and everyone's just like standing around, like people got gloves on, and I'm like, hey, sorry, hey, what is happening?

Why are all these people in this room right now?

And then they tell me, oh, we think that the umbilical cord is wrapped around his neck.

Okay, so okay, so what what does this mean?

Why are all these people, what is going to have to happen?

Well, we may have to do an emergency C section, we may have to do all of this stuff, and immediately the calmness that I had, the the the faith, that the security that I had, that everything had been great up to this point, that you know, Cole was just gonna pop out, we're gonna go home in like six hours, like that all left.

That in that moment, the reality set in.

Something could happen.

And I thought about this as I was writing this.

Every time Cole runs up to me and gives me a hug, every time he blows me a kiss when I put him down at night, I think back to that moment where I wasn't 100% that this was gonna be a reality.

And in that moment, I am filled with gratitude.

I am filled with thanksgiving.

And I walk out of his room and I just say to him, like, thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

And for many of you in here, if you don't know what to be thankful for, if you don't know what God has blessed you with or what it what is actually like a major blessing in your life, think of this.

This is a this is this is not a fun thing to think about, but think of this.

Think if think if tomorrow your parents were to pass away suddenly.

Think tomorrow if your children, think tomorrow if you lost all of your family in a fatal car wreck.

Think tomorrow if if you walked into work, this job, you were the sole supporter for your family.

You walked into work and your boss says, Okay, we gotta let you go.

We actually can't give you any severance is actually this whole long thing.

Hey man, sorry.

Think if you walked outside and tried to start your car, your car, there's your only means of transportation to get it the job that you have, it just didn't start, and you had to get a whole think if you lost all of these things now, imagine that you didn't lose them.

How thankful are you for those things right now in your life?

If you don't know what to praise God for, just imagine that everything in your life that is comfortable, everything in your life that actually gets you by day to day, it was gone.

That's what you praise God for.

That is what God has given you.

Think of this.

Anyone ever been going down the road like you may maybe you just finished doing your your budget at the house?

You're like, man, I don't know how we're gonna make ends meet, but but you know, I believe in God.

And you go down the road and all of a sudden the check engine light comes on.

What?

No, I just took this in.

The check engine light comes on, then the next light you start seeing smoke come out of your hood.

Anyone ever been in that moment where you know you don't, you don't gotta you don't have expendable income.

Like you don't really have a whole lot of extra funds to pay for anything right now, then your car just doesn't start.

You immediately begin to think, worst case scenario, at least I do.

The whole way to the shop, I'm like, this is this is gonna be this is gonna, I'm gonna go buy a whole new car.

This this is this is probably the transmission.

It's probably the transmission.

That's the most expensive thing.

It's definitely a transmission.

I know it is.

I know it's the transmission.

And then you get there and you wait about 30 minutes, and then it's like sitting in a doctor's office waiting for a report.

Then the shop owner comes in, he's like, hey man, we got it all fixed.

What was it?

Oh, it was just, you know, there's a wireless, it was just sending a faulty.

Oh, thank God.

Yes.

I don't, I don't, so I don't what do I owe you?

Oh, it's just 20 bucks.

For real?

Awesome.

When you get back in your car, man, your car smells good all of a sudden.

Your car drives good all of a sudden, man.

You take it through a car wash, be like, Yeah, you got yeah, hey, you deserve this.

You're so thankful for something that you weren't even thinking about until the check engine light came on.

Psalm 103, verse 2 says this let all that I am praise the Lord.

Psalms 103:2

May I never forget the good things he has done for me.

Man, this entire series is all about be or this entire week in Advent.

This this subject today is all about being thankful.

And when you walked in, you you were handed these cards that just says Thanksgiving on it.

And we when you walked in, I'm sure you saw those those panels out there, those wall panels out there that say Advent, Thanksgiving on there.

What we want to ask you guys to do is maybe when I was talking about, think of something that you lost and and and then actually imagine that you didn't lose it.

Write that down on this card.

Write that down on this card, and then on your way out, we want you to put this on the board so that way every time you walk into the next few weeks, you're gonna see this and be like, Man, that's what I'm thankful for.

Hey, let me say this as well.

Everything that you're about to write down, everything that you thought about that you're so thankful for.

If it's a person, if it's your family, if it's your wife, tell that person.

Tell your wife you're thankful for.

Tell your children how much you love them, how proud you are of them.

When you drive to work tomorrow morning, just just say to yourself, just say to God, God, thank you for this job.

I don't really like it, but thank you.

God, I pray for a new job, but thank you for this one.

Tell if it's a person, tell them how thankful you are.

But write these down, man.

We encourage you guys to participate in this Advent season by putting those on the panels when you walk out.

And so we've talked about, man, how to be thankful.

First and foremost, recognize that every good thing in your life that comes from God.

Number two, refuse to let what you want rob you of what you have.

And the third one was turn every blessing back into praise.

And believe it or not, uh, curveball, uh, I have a fourth point, actually.

I'm a three-point preacher, but it's not gonna get a fourth point for this one.

Everything that I just talked about, here's how you cultivate gratitude, here's how you cultivate thanksgiving.

Number four, repeat.

This is not a one-time thing.

Thinking of what you're thankful for, looking at all the blessings in your life and praising God for.

This is not something that you just do one day out of the other.

This is not something that you do when you feel convicted.

When you I'm thankful for Vinny.

I love Vinny, I'm thankful for you.

I just had to say it.

I love you.

And I'm gonna repeat that tomorrow when I see you.

I'm gonna say I'm thankful for you.

I love that you're up here with me.

Uh man, uh repeat this every single day.

This is not just something you do when when Pastor Justin convicts you of it.

No, this is something that if you want to be happy, if you're not happy in your life right now, if you're struggling with finding contentment, if you're struggling with finding any fulfillment in your life, repeat these three things every single day.

Because what we just talked about, it's not I forgot what the quote was.

It's not happy people who are grateful, it's grateful people who are happy.

It's not happy people who are grateful, it's grateful people who are happy.

And at the end of the day, man, when you do these three things, when you recognize that everything I have, my wealth, my job, my family, my friends, my house, even if it only has one bathroom, everything is from God.

And I'm not gonna let I'm not gonna spend all of my time looking at things that I don't have, that maybe one day I will have, but I don't have them right now.

I'm not gonna let that rob me of what God has already given me.

And then everything that I have in my life, I'm gonna praise God for.

I'm gonna write it down.

I'm gonna start a journal, and every single day I'm gonna write the things.

I'm gonna intentionally think to myself and write down, man, I'm thankful for my family.

I'm thankful for the fact that I have AC right now.

I'm thankful for the fact that I'm about to get into a car and drive to work and I'm about to make money to pay rent and support my family.

I'm gonna write all these things down so that several weeks down the road, six months down the road, a year down the road, I can look back at these things and go, you know what?

I'm still thankful for that.

I forgot all about that.

It once was a big deal to me, but I totally forgot about thank you, God, that I can forget about blessings that you are that good to me.

Come on, think about that.

But I think no matter what place you're at in life, every single one of us, whether you think you have something to be thankful for or not, at the end of the day, every single one of us have something to be thankful for.

And it's the grace that we've been given through Jesus Christ.

Every single one of us in this room, we were offered something and given something that we did not deserve, we did not earn, we were given forgiveness that we could have done nothing to do ourselves, but God loved us so much that he sent his one and only Son from heaven to live life as a man to show us what it means to be a follower of Christ and then to take our place on the cross and sacrifice himself for us for the forgiveness of our sins.

God wanted a relationship with me and you so bad that he gave up his son, and Jesus sacrificed himself for you and me, and he died on that cross, and he was put into a grave, and we just sang about it in worship, but he didn't stay in that grave.

Three days later, he rose again, conquering death in hell and giving us life eternal, giving us a relationship with God.

And so if you don't have something to be thankful for, if you are a follower of Jesus, oh my gosh, you have something to praise God for.

Amen.

But then there's those of you in this room, man, who maybe you're hearing about this God, you're hearing about this Jesus who loves you so much, who has given you so much, but yet you've never received any of it, you've never experienced any of it.

You don't know what it is to have fulfillment in Jesus because you've never given your life to Him.

Here at Celebration, we never let a service in without giving someone the opportunity to do just that.

So I want to ask all over this room that every head be bowed and every eye be closed.

I want to give you an opportunity to respond to God in two ways this morning.

There's some of you in this room, I want to give you an opportunity to commit your life to Jesus.

Some of you for the very first time.

There's some of you in this room, man, who you have never had a time or a place in your life where you said, Jesus, I am trusting you with my life.

I believe that you were the Son of God.

I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, and I believe that you did not stay in that grave, but you rose again and giving me life and life eternal.

And today I want to accept you, I want to follow you, I want to experience fulfillment in you, I want to be satisfied in you because I'm done doing it on my own.

I want to ask you to come into my heart and save me.

And you need to commit your life to Him today.

There's some of you in this room, man.

I want to give you an opportunity to recommit your life to Jesus this morning.

There's some of you in this room, man, who maybe you have just forgot about everything that Jesus did for you.

Man, maybe you have been pursuing all the things that you want and not looking at the things that you need.

And it's honestly it's overshadowed Jesus in your life.

And you've just been pursuing all the things of the flesh and you find yourself far away from Jesus.

But maybe you're here this morning and maybe your family drug you here to church because you just happened to stay the weekend over Thanksgiving and you had to come to church with your family.

Or maybe you're just here, but you know that you are not following Jesus like you used to.

You know that you are not living a life of a Jesus follower, but today you're like, man, I I am remembering everything that Jesus did for me.

I am remembering what it meant when Jesus came to this earth and what it meant for me.

And today I want to recommit my life to him.

And so that's you, and you're in this room, and you want to commit or recommit your life to Jesus.

I'm just gonna count to three, and I just want to ask that you raise your hand, and then all I'm gonna do is just lead you in a prayer of salvation.

So if that's you and you're in this room and you want to commit your life to Jesus for the very first time, or you want to recommit your life, I just want to ask that you just raise your hands high in one, two, three.

Raise them.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Keep those hands raised, amen.

You can put those hands down.

If you just raise your hand to commit or recommit your life to Jesus, I just want to ask that you repeat this simple prayer of faith out loud after me.

And I want to ask everyone else in the room to repeat this out loud after me as well.

Jesus, I stand before you today, asking you to forgive me of all my sins and all my mistakes.

Today I choose to make you my Lord and my Savior.

From this point forward, I'm gonna live my life, the rest of my life, for you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, church.

Can we stand to our feet and can we put our hands together?

Hey, listen, I want to ask that no one leave right now in this moment unless you absolutely have to.

You see, we're not done with this service.

We're gonna go back into one more song.

We're gonna remember the advent of Jesus.

We're gonna remember what it means and what it meant that Jesus came to save you and me.

And then we're gonna sing in expectation of what it's going to mean when he comes back.

Amen.

And then we're gonna celebrate all that God just did in every hand that was raised.

But let me just say this.

If you just raised your hand and accepted Jesus, recommitted your life, just go ahead and pull out your phone right now and text aside to 25101.

We're just gonna send you all the information you need to take every step in your relationship with Jesus.

Amen.

So I'm gonna pray, man, and then we're gonna worship God, and then we're gonna head out and be thankful.

Amen.

God, we thank you so much for who you are, what you've done.

God, we thank you for the advent of Jesus.

We thank you, God, for sending your wonderful son to save us, God, to give us grace, Lord, that we have something to be truly thankful for, God.

And Father, we thank you for every life that was changed in here today, God.

For those who are walking out completely different than the way that we came in.

God, we love you and we praise you and we worship you right now.

Come on, church.

Let's sing.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

For more information about Celebration Orlando or to get in touch with us, please visit celebrationorlando.org.