There's an ANT in Every GIANT

Okay, so uh when I was uh growing up, for the first several years of my life, it was just me and mom.

Uh and so as a single mom, uh, Kathy, my mother, she uh moved us in with my grandparents, with her mom and dad.

And we were living in North Carolina, and she moved us to Virginia to live with them because as a single mother, she needed some help.

And grandma did not work, and granddad was kind of in the twilight years of his career, and so his job was winding down.

So he would spend half of his time kind of traveling, and he had one of those jobs where travel also meant vacation trips, so we got to spend a lot of time with them.

But then the other half of time, he just worked from home, so he got to be around, he was more present, he would take me to daycare and pick me up, and I got to spend a lot of time with them.

I'm actually named after my uh grandfather, our son is named after my grandfather, his name was Richard Earl Lillard, my name is Richard Scott Smith, our son's name is Silas Earl Smith.

We are both named after him, uh, an amazing man.

He's a uh a veteran of war in the United States Navy.

He was an engineer, he was a very unique person, and as a result of getting to spend a lot of time with him, I remember and have vivid memories to this day of eating breakfast with granddad.

And I, you know, as I was little, we'd sit at this uh, you know, kind of counter in the kitchen and I'd climb up the stool and sit there with him.

And my granddad was a creature of habit, and maybe you are like this or you know someone like this.

And I don't know if it was his background, the way his brain was wired, but everything had to be structured and systematic.

And so he was the type of person that if he were eating meat and potatoes, he would cut his food up before he'd start eating it and make sure that there were uh equal amount of bites of meat and potatoes.

Like he didn't want anything to be off kilter, and it was very fascinating to watch.

And he was, again, as a creature of habit, he would eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, and it was half a cantaloupe.

That's what he would eat.

And he would put salt on it.

I thought that was weird, uh, but he would do that, and it was so funny, you know.

Uh he would go and he'd cut the cantaloupe, he'd get it ready.

And my grandma's in the kitchen, and she had a huge kitchen, big time cook.

I mean, she was quite the chef.

She had all the cutting knives and all the stuff in the kitchen, and granddad, no matter what, still would just whip out his pocket knife and cut his cantaloupe with his dirty old pocket knife.

She'd be fussing at him, like, what are you doing?

And he'd just grin at me, you know.

I think he I think he did it on purpose, right?

To mess with her.

He'd cut this cantaloupe and he'd cut it into different bites, and he'd get it all ready to eat, and he'd cut mine too, and I'd be all excited.

And then he would do this.

He would stop and he would say, Scotty, it's time to pray.

And he would pray this prayer.

And maybe you've heard of it.

God is great, God is good.

Let us thank him for our food.

By his hands we all are fed.

Give us, Lord, our daily bread.

And thank you, Lord, for this food.

Bless it to the nourishment of our bodies.

Every day.

Every day, every meal, granddad would pray that prayer.

If we were at a family gathering and it was prayer time, he would pray that exact prayer.

Holiday meals, Thanksgiving dinner, he would pray the exact same prayer.

And I don't know if it's because of his time in the Navy or the way his brain was wired as an engineer, but he loved structure.

And I think it's because granddad understood that structure in our lives can produce habits, and habits produce a person.

Have you ever been told that before?

You are what you repeatedly do.

Have you ever heard this?

You are what you repeatedly do.

I'll say it like this: your life is not a reflection of your intentions, it's a collection of your choices.

And so the habits we form form us.

And Grandad taught me that through his life.

It was kind of one of those walk that talks.

And it was this prayer he would pray that seemed so simple, ordinary, and everyday to me.

But it wasn't until I got older that I saw why he did what he did.

And I think it's this.

I think it's because there is power in gratitude.

And that's what we're gonna look at today.

As we've been looking at this series, Little Giants, we are looking at stories, situations, and things that God did extraordinary things through seemingly ordinary things.

And today we are going to talk about the extraordinary product of the ordinary practice of gratitude.

What are those two words we're taught to say when we're younger?

Thank you.

In fact, they're a part of the three-word combo that most parents teach their kids, right?

Those three words are please and thank you.

Gratitude is such a commonly taught thing that it can seem so every day that we miss the power that lies within the practice.

And we're gonna look at a story from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

You can find it in your Bibles or find it in your phones, Matthew chapter 14, starting in verse 13.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

And it's a story you are familiar with from Matthew 14.

It's a story that's gonna be found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels.

It is commonly referred to as the feeding of the 5,000.

Again, for future reference, I'm going to be teaching through this when we go through the Gospel of Luke next summer together as a church.

But we're going to be coming at it from a different angle.

And this week, as we look at Matthew 14 and we look at the feeding of the 5,000, we are going to look at the extraordinary product of the ordinary practice of gratitude.

Because Jesus is going to do something in this story that is very rarely talked about in the story because the miracle is so big that it's just not common to look at this particular situation.

And I want us to do that together.

So if you have your Bible, you can follow along screen if you have your phone.

Matthew 14, 13 through 21.

I'm going to read from the New International Version.

It says this when Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.

Pause.

Folks in the room.

I need some me time.

I need to kind of recalibrate.

Moms, I'm sure you can resonate with this one.

Sometimes it's been a day, and you're like, I need a minute.

I just want to encourage you, that's okay.

It's okay to seek some solitude for some self-care.

Jesus did it here.

There is nothing wrong with taking care of self when it comes to your emotional well-being.

Some people feel guilty about thinking that you don't.

Jesus did it here.

He's been performing miracles.

People are starting to follow him.

Word of mouth is growing.

And that's why you notice he kind of goes away to be alone.

Not that he didn't know what was happening, but I think it's interesting that Jesus models Sabbath and solitude and rest for us because it's a reminder sometimes when life gets busy.

Sometimes it's okay to just take a pause and kind of reset.

It can be good for you.

Jesus does this here, but then look at what happens.

Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

That means he was in these towns and villages performing miracles, healing the sick, teaching, and he starts to amass quite a following.

And so where he went, people just started following.

Because, I mean, you think about it, Jesus does the things that we've known Jesus to do as we read through scripture together.

You want more of that.

And that's essentially what was happening.

And so Jesus gets to this kind of solitary place.

And it says, when Jesus landed and he saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and he healed their sick.

Now I love this because I think someone needs to hear this in conversations with people over the years.

Sometimes folks will say things to me that'll sound a little bit like this, and maybe you've thought this before.

Oh, well, God, I don't want to bother God with fill in the blank.

Like I'm going through this, but I don't want to bother God with my issue.

You notice that Jesus is not recorded to have been told, okay, he was finding some solitude.

He went to a remote place.

And when Jesus landed and he saw the large crowd, it doesn't say, and Jesus looked at them and thought, again with this, can I just get a minute?

Look, I just I just want to take a bath and listen to my crazy crime show podcast.

Leave me alone.

Leave me be.

He does not say that.

What does it say?

When Jesus saw the large crowd, after serving them, serving them and serving them and serving them, it said what?

He had compassion on them and he healed their sick.

Folks, if you serve, can I encourage you with this?

Keep serving.

Keep serving.

It does take strength, but embrace the compassion for people.

Because when you do, it produces continued service.

You can write that down.

Compassion produces continued service.

Verse 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, This is a remote place and it's already getting late.

Send the crowds away so they can go get food for themselves into the villages.

Now, this is interesting because they're in a spot that's kind of off the beaten path.

Like Doordash is not going to deliver to this particular spot.

And so the disciples come to Jesus and they're like, Look, the day's long, it's getting over.

People have been here all day.

Their tummies are rumbly.

Why don't you send them away so they can go back home to their places and get some food?

And then Jesus does this.

This was great.

Jesus replied, They do not need to go away.

You guys give them something to eat.

And the disciples are probably looking at each other like, Well, so about that.

We're hungry too.

Like we didn't pack food.

And then it's interesting, Jesus says, Well, uh, you feed them.

And their response is, We have five loaves of bread and two fish.

And that's the kind of thing you tossed out to Jesus thinking he is going to ignore that because that is, that's not even a lunchable.

That's a that's an off-brand lunchable.

That's a poor kid's lunch.

They don't even get the name brand Oreo cookie in the lunchable.

They get the Walmart brand cream-filled sandwich cookie.

That's what that lunch is.

And that's what they come back to Jesus with.

He goes, Look, no, no, no, look, let them stay.

You guys feed them.

And then they go, Well, this is all we have.

And Jesus says, Bring them here to me.

Now, I'm going to give you some insight into the mind of a pastor.

You can judge me for this.

I don't care.

I thought this was funny.

I try to see this as a real person, really in this situation.

If you're the disciples, and there are, we're going to find out, 5,000 men.

That does not include women and children.

It says that.

You're talking about likely 10,000 plus people who are a part of this gathering and they're all hungry.

They need to eat.

You're the disciples.

You go to Jesus and you're thinking, all right, we have seen you do some pretty neat stuff, but uh we don't know anything about that.

We just send them home.

They need to eat.

And you've told us, feed them, and we're like, here's a Walmart brand lunchable, Jesus.

This is all we have.

And Jesus says, Give me that.

If you're a disciple, for a moment you're thinking, is he about to eat this in front of all of us?

You never thought that before, did you?

But think about it, Jesus is like, look, it's been all day.

I've been teaching all day, I've been working all day.

Yeah.

What is that?

Is that the baloney one or the turkey one?

Yeah, give that.

I'll take that one.

You gotta like, what are the disciples think?

He doesn't say that, but put yourself in the story.

This is real, these are real people.

He says, Bring them in.

And then he directed the people to sit down on the grass.

And taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.

Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people, and they all ate and were satisfied.

And the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls full of broken pieces that were left over.

The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

This is spectacular.

This is a miracle you have probably heard of before.

This story of Jesus feeding thousands of people is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Now, what is interesting here is there are some details that aren't there in each account, but one detail that is there is one that you might easily overlook.

You can find other accounts in the Gospels, that the Gospel writers through oral tradition, some being there, some not, and it being passed down through word of mouth as they recorded the story and put it into writing so that the literature would carry on for generations to read of these miracles and these teachings of Jesus.

And you can go back and find that in some of the stories, including Matthew's gospel that we just read, some of you are thinking, but where's the little boy who had the food?

See, he's not even mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, whereas he will be mentioned in other gospels.

That seems like a pretty big element of the story.

I mean, if I were to tell you, here's the football team and I leave out the quarterback or the running back, you're gonna think, uh, we're missing somebody here.

I'm pretty sure this is how this is supposed to go, right?

Or we're, you know, we're watching a soccer game and you're like, they're gonna bring out the goalie?

Like, is the goalkeeper coming out?

You're like, no.

Seems like that's an important element to the story.

If you're familiar with it, you're thinking to yourself, well, hold on a minute now.

The little boy and him having his lunch, that seems pretty important.

Why is that not in here?

But why is this one detail in here?

And this one detail is in every single gospel, and it's so important for us to notice.

And what does it say?

And taking the loaves and fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.

Now that line is perhaps the most easily overlooked line in this story because in the only eight verses it took to write this story, a lot is going on, the greatest of which is Jesus taking a lunchable and feeding 10,000 people with it.

But every single gospel writer makes note that Jesus took this meager lunch and thanked God for it.

Now, my translation says, gave thanks and broke the loaves.

Your translation might say, and blessed the food.

Now, here's what's interesting: Matthew, Mark, and Luke use a certain Greek word to describe this instance.

John uses a slightly different word.

Those two words in Greek are eulogia or eulogio or Eucharisto.

Now, depending on your religious background, how familiar you are with things, Eucharisto is where we get our word Eucharist, which would refer to the Lord's Supper or communion, something we do several times a year here as a church where we remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

And it is a blessing over that.

Eulogio is where we get our word eulogy.

If you have ever been to a memorial service, there is a eulogy, and the name uh the nameplate, eulogy, is is really used to explain good words spoken over something or someone.

And that's what the word is used here.

We translate it into blessed the food or gave thanks, because in the Greek language, as they were observing this, they saw Jesus literally take this food and bless it by saying, God, thank you for it, by speaking good words over this food.

It is such a simple thing that he did.

You know, my my granddad's cantaloupe morning breakfast prayer.

By his hands we all are fed.

Give us, Lord, our daily bread, bless his food to the nourishment of our bodies.

Boom, boom, boom.

We rattled it off.

I kept my eyes open, just waiting for him to finish praying so we could eat.

It's so simple.

And he looked up to heaven and he gave thanks for the loaves.

Like, great, get to the good stuff.

No, stop right there.

There are so many details in this story that you and I would want.

Because you notice what's not mentioned here?

Matthew doesn't even mention the boy.

Nor does anyone mention anybody's response to the fact that Jesus just did this.

All you get is everybody ate till they were full, and then we had a bunch of leftovers.

But I'll tell you right now, if I were there and I were remembering this story, or if I were there and I were in the crowd of people, first thing I'm doing afterwards is I'm like, uh, can I speak to a manager?

I would love to know how that just happened.

Like, I'd have to know.

Have you ever been, you ever maybe watched it on TV or been to a uh like a magic show where the magician came up, did all this stuff, and then they come back out at the end and like, would you like to know how he did it?

And you're like, yes, and they're like, great, we're not gonna tell you.

Have a good night.

You're like, are you kidding me?

I would have been that person, Jesus, I gotta know.

If I'm the disciples, you don't think, come on now, you guys are familiar with who Peter is.

Somebody like Peter would have been asking, okay, Jesus, how'd you do it?

How'd you do it?

Let me know.

How'd you do it?

Sleight of hand?

How'd you do this?

That's not mentioned.

They don't tell there are so many details that are actually not recorded that are things you and I would want to know about the story.

So then why on earth would all four gospel writers pay such attention and make sure it was noted?

Some of them there, some of them were not there, which means they heard the story from others who were there, which means this detail had to travel through time before it was actually put down in literary form, which means Jesus thanking God and blessing the food stood out so much to these guys that they made sure it was put in every single piece of literature they could publish about this particular story.

Why?

It is because the practice of gratitude seems ordinary, but it is extraordinary.

Jesus not only models thanksgiving and gratitude, but he would teach it several times throughout the Gospels.

Jesus would teach on the practice of gratitude, acknowledging that everything in our lives that is good, every provision in our lives is from God, and we are to be grateful for it.

And while it is natural for us inside of a church setting to dial into the spiritual ramifications of the practice of gratitude, which we are going to do, I also want to highlight something that is brilliant about the modeling and teaching of Jesus here, which is that the practice of gratitude is beyond acknowledging the goodness of God for his glory.

That is at its core, that is its purpose.

But God, in his loving kindness, in his generosity on people, also gave us the practice of gratitude, thankful hearts, because it is good for us.

And I'll explain to you how.

There is an organization out there called the American Brain Foundation.

The American Brain Foundation, it is a group made up of psychologists and neurobiologists who essentially work with different universities and they study the brain.

They study how the brain works and everything.

And there is an arm of the social science of psychology called gratitude psychology.

And according to the American Brain Foundation, the practice of gratitude can rewire your brain.

It's squishy.

And the the practice of gratitude, rewiring the brain, relies on what's called the neuroplasticity of the brain, which essentially means the brain can rewire itself because what'll happen is the more you practice gratitude, uh, the neuroplasticity of the brain will allow it to form almost a reorganization of self through what are called synaptic connections, which means certain learnings and experience will fire stuff in the brain and it can train itself to see more positive, to be more positive, to think different things.

And you'll see this in the way kind of positive reinforcement is taught in development stages sometimes.

That's actually how the human brain works.

You can rewire your brain through the practice of gratitude.

And they went on to study and released.

Least four areas that gratitude helps a person.

It improves a person's life in the area of brain chemistry, stress reduction, mental health, and physical health.

The way your brain is made up, as far as gratitude is concerned, it will how can I put this?

The more you practice it, the more saying thank you, the more having an attitude of gratitude is exercised in your life.

Here's what happens when you when you are thankful for things and you express that and you feel that.

It triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin in your brain, which will activate this thing known as the prefrontal cortex in your brain, which essentially rewards positive thinking.

It's really what is going on.

If you've ever, maybe you've gone for a long run, if you're a runner and you you've heard the phrase a runner's high, at the end of that exercise, your body has released uh serotonin and you feel better.

It's uplifting, or maybe you've had a hard day and you you go into the freezer and you crack open that pint of ice cream that you're not supposed to eat in one sitting, but you do because it's been a day and you don't care.

And you eat it, you take a bite, and that that sugar gets through, it gets on your tongue, and you're like, I just feel better.

You know what that is?

That's a hit of dopamine.

You see it in social media.

If you scroll through social media and somebody likes your picture, there's a hit of dopamine in your brain.

It's what draws you back to it.

It keeps moving forward.

So the practice of gratitude, the way it works with the brain chemistry, it it trains that prefrontal cortex to start positively thinking of things.

That's how gratitude legitimately affects the human body.

As far as stress reduction is concerned, what'll happen is the more you practice gratitude, you'll have a you have a thing in your body called the PNS, the parasympathetic nervous system.

And gratitude, when you practice it, here's what it does: it will it will stimulate that parasympathetic nervous system and lower something called cortisol in your body.

You have cortisol in your body, and if it gets higher, your stress feels higher.

So when you're feeling stress, really what you've got is an abundance of cortisol.

Your level's high.

And when your cortisol level lowers, it reduces stress.

Gratitude, practicing gratitude, has been scientifically shown to reduce the level of cortisol, thus reducing your stress level.

As far as it comes to mental health, the practice of gratitude has been shown to relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression because it breaks the negative cycles of rumination.

How many times have you heard somebody say this?

If you focus on the negative, you'll always feel the negative.

It's a scientific phenomenon working within the brain.

And the practice of gratitude helps improve mental health.

Even in your physical health, gratitude has been shown to improve sleep quality.

Somebody's like, Can I get an amen?

You almost are being a thankful person.

I need to sleep.

It is actually good for you.

So not only does God give us this practice of gratitude to exercise in our lives so that we can recognize his goodness and for his glory, but he also gives us gratitude because gratitude is good for us.

It's good for us emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Gratitude also does something in our walk with Jesus, in our faith, in our relationship with Him spiritually, that is needed to get through life.

Gratitude grows your faith.

And you may not have thought about that before.

But I had a conversation with a guy after first service, and he pulled out his phone and he opened up his notes app and he scrolled back all year.

Every single day, he had a note on his phone that said, Today I'm thankful for.

And it was all day.

All day, every day, every single day of the year.

He had a note that he would make every day and he would read it.

And I thought about it because I know this individual.

He serves, he prays, he walks with Jesus, he looks like a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

Someone who learns God's word to know God's way, lives, loves, gives like Jesus teaches, and helps others do the same.

He embodies that.

And you know what's interesting?

No coincidence.

The most generous people you know are oftentimes the most grateful people you know.

The most patient people you know are oftentimes the most grateful people you know.

The most compassionate people, the most disciplined people, the most gracious people, the kindest people that you will meet oftentimes are the most grateful people because they understand gratitude grows your faith.

Here's why.

The more we thank God for the things in our lives, the better we get at trusting God with the things in our lives.

Even on the hard days.

And I want to teach this to you in a way that's going to require an animated children's TV show, which I'm sure you're excited about.

So everyone pretend like you're five years old for just a moment and journey with me to the PBS television show known as Word World.

Here's what Word World is.

Maybe you're familiar with this.

This is Word World.

Uh our kids used to watch it when uh they were little.

I still try to watch it with them, and they all leave the room, and so I sit there by myself and watch it.

Some peek behind the curtain into the Smith House.

Word World is very funny.

If you notice, all of these animals are built with words, right?

Do you notice pig is P-I-G, duck, D U C K, right?

Ant, A-N-T, and then the dog.

And this the the premise of the show is that they have adventures and they figure out problems as a group and and they build things with words.

So the barn on the TV show is built with the letters B, A, R, N.

It's really interesting, and they all talk except the dog.

The dog is the only one that still has to bark, doesn't get to talk like a person.

I don't know why.

You'd have to take that up with Word World.

But it's interesting, there was an episode once I remember watching years ago with our kids.

And you notice here our friend in the middle, ant, A-N-T.

The episode's all about him.

And the ant in this particular episode was feeling pretty insecure and down and out.

And he said, Look, I'm little, I can't do a lot because I'm little.

I don't have a lot because I'm little.

Nobody thinks I can do anything because I'm little.

And so his friends all rally around him, including the dog who just barked at him, but the rest of them talked to him like a person and they encouraged him.

And here's what they did for the ant: they put together stuff and they built stuff.

And what they did is they built a giant out of the words G-I-A-N-T.

And they showed the ant.

They said, Ant, come here, we have something to show you.

And they bring him and they say, Look, look, what's that word?

And the ant's like, giant.

And he's like, okay.

And they look at him, they go, now watch.

And they pulled the words A and T out and they said, Ant, look.

There's an ant in every giant.

And all your brains just went, gratitude oftentimes seems like an ant in our lives.

Because we have so many things to be thankful for, but life is so hard that we overlook those things.

And so we wake up, and maybe you're in this phase of life.

Like I wake up nowadays, and my body makes noises through my mouth when I sit down or stand up.

It's involuntary.

Yeah, yeah, all right.

Praise the Lord.

Yep.

And you know what happens?

I'll wake up in the morning, I'm guilty of this.

I'll wake up in the morning and I think, Lord, my knees hurt.

Not God, thank you for these knees.

And this isn't to guilt you, this is not a conversation.

This is to show you.

There's an ant in every giant.

And gratitude is a giant that's practiced on the ant level.

In the every day.

God, thank you for this.

God, thank you for this.

And and look, let's be real, let's be real.

We get it.

Life's hard.

Sometimes there are those days that are 23 hours tough.

Can you thank God for the one hour where you can identify a blessing?

I've had those conversations and prayers with our kids.

Hey guys, today was tough, but we still need to thank God for the blessings in our lives.

You may have a week where it's six days and 23 hours.

That was hard.

But can you take that time and focus on at least one thing to be thankful for?

It rewires your brain.

The practice of gratitude, not only does it help you mentally, physically, and emotionally, but spiritually as you continue to grow in your relationship with God and your journey with Jesus, the more we thank God for everything in our lives, the more we will trust God with everything in our lives because we are training our trust muscles.

Write this down.

Thanksgiving trains your trust muscles.

I'll say it again.

Thanksgiving trains your trust muscles.

So how do we get practical?

We mentioned this a few weeks ago when we talked about praise and worship, and I encouraged you to take your phone out, calendar some praise pauses throughout the week.

Some people have done that.

They've uh given me updates.

It's been really interesting.

I had a guy pull me after service and tell me he had done that in the next two weeks of his life were game changers.

Well, I have one similar to that with thank you.

Insert some thank you time into your day.

Whether it's first thing in the morning, it's at breakfast, while you're brushing your teeth, maybe it's on a lunch break, maybe it's when you pull into the driveway or you park your car before you go into your home.

Take a brief moment, maybe it's at the end of the night before you go to bed.

Take a moment and say thank you.

Pick one thing to be thankful for.

Calendar that.

Maybe start to build your prayers around thank you.

Instead of praying like we're about to provide God with our Uber Eats order.

Maybe it maybe we start with God thank you for fill in the blank.

Just put one thing.

Start to build your prayers around that.

Insert some of these prayer, uh, prayer moments or thanksgiving moments, these gratitude moments into your life.

And watch what God will do because it will start to rewire your brain.

It will start to shape you.

And you'll start to desire, you'll start to desire gratitude even more because you're gonna realize what gratitude does for you.

And then as you acknowledge God and His goodness and you start to trust Him more, here's what happens: gratitude is like a gusher.

You ever eat those little fruit snacks when you were a kid?

Gushers, you know, they explode in your mouth, it's gross.

Gratitude is like a soul gusher.

You know what happens?

It gets in you and then it gushes out of you.

And so here's what happens you struggle, but you practice gratitude.

You have a hard day, but you practice gratitude, and you become a joyful person because you're a grateful person.

And then the people around you, they start to see it.

So when they have tough days, they gravitate to you because they want what you have.

See, gratitude uh has gravitational pull.

You know this.

You're thinking of somebody right now, they're a grateful, joyful person.

I love being around them.

Do you know why?

Your brain craves it, your soul craves it.

So not only does gratitude posture our hearts in an in a place of worship, it also helps us mentally, emotionally, and physically.

It helps grow our faith, and then it also helps others in their faith.

There is an ant in every giant because the ordinary practice of gratitude produces extraordinary results in our lives.

Take that with you this week.

Let's pray, and you can linger in the lobby.

God, thank you again for another day.

Thank you for your word.

I pray that we have learned from it, and I pray that what we've learned from it doesn't get left here, but that we indeed take it with us, that we become grateful people and thus grow in our faith to become joyful people, generous people, compassionate people.

God, give us the discipline this week to insert some thank you time into our days so that that gratitude would grow in us and that it would grow our faith.

Thank you again for all the work you're doing in and through your church.

God, we want to, as a church body, practice gratitude.

So, God, hear our thanksgiving for the work you're doing in and through our lives, that that gratitude would continue to produce compassion and generosity and care as we love each other and love outside the walls of this church.

God, again, be honored by everything that we have said, done, sang, and celebrated in this place.

May we take this with us and grow in our faith together.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church.

We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you.

If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal.

Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner.

If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need.

Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.