The Gratitude Challenge

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I gotta say something real fast as a parent you know I haven't got any parents in here. As a parent, there's a couple of things I've never had to do. Maybe it's just my kids. Maybe you can relate, but I've never had to convince my kids to eat candy or cake. You know I never said put down that broccoli, jane Larson, pick up that cake, you better eat it. You know, I've never had that conversation with them. I also never had the conversation where I had to remind them to watch more TV. Like, hey, don't put those books down, you try to learn math. We ain't counting up in this family. Watch the television more screen time. Never had to do it. Well, I never had to convince my kids to go to the toy aisle and target I'm going to you better get in that toy aisle and you better buy the most expensive toy. Those are conversations I've never had with my kids, you know. Because what they naturally want? All of those things they want candy, they want toys, they want TV. It's natural. You want to know a conversation I do have to have with my kids and you probably would agree with me as a parent.

Speaker 1: 1:07

One thing I always have to say to my kids is this make sure you say thank you. I always have to tell them grandparents give them something. Just the other day, the grandparents came to town, gave them something nice. I said did you tell them thank you? Oh, yes, thank you. You know, I always have to remind them to say thank you. Now, why is that? Because it's polite, it's kind, but gratitude is not natural. Gratitude is not a natural thing. Thankfulness is actually not a natural thing. It is a learned behavior. Because of that, we want to cultivate in our children. What a value of gratitude. Because we've all seen that on Grateful Kid, haven't we? We've all seen the kid at the store throwing a temper tantrum because they want two toys instead of one.

Speaker 1: 1:55

And then what happens to that kid? That kid turns into what An ungrateful preteen, Come on. Then an ungrateful preteen who feels entitled to everything turns into a teenager who is ungrateful Well, my friend Jill, my friend Stacy and Jill, they got cars on their birthday. Where's mine, you don't get one, you know? And they turn into an ungrateful teenager. And then what happens when they turn into an ungrateful teenager, they turn into an ungrateful young adult. And then we know that kid who turns into a preteen, who turns into a teenager, who turns into a young adult, will eventually turn into what An ungrateful adult. And we don't want that for our kids. Heck, we don't want that for ourselves, do we? Because we know? We know what an ungrateful person is, and ungrateful people are typically bitter, negative, entitled, victim mindset.

Speaker 1: 2:55

The world is always out to get them. I had this one person that, no matter what, no matter what teacher that they had, no matter what grade they had, every teacher was against them. I was like, dang, you have the worst luck, don't you? There's always a victim, judgmental, life-sucking people, aren't they? And so, and none of us wants to do that.

Speaker 1: 3:14

I once heard it said like this a complaining tongue reveals an ungrateful heart. A complaining tongue reveals an ungrateful heart. Our rabbi Jesus puts it like this in Luke 6. He says for out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Gratitude at its core is a heart condition. It's a heart condition. Oh, you just made me nervous, thank you. Wow, I needed some water, though, thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Gratitude at its core is a heart condition. Gratitude, like joy, is a choice to be made not just based on the events happening in our lives, but rooted in a relationship with God. So okay, as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers. What does gratitude mean to us? Is it just one meal or a Thanksgiving, come on, or is this something more? What does it do for us? This is what gratitude does for us. Choosing gratitude transforms your perspective, deepens your faith and leads to a life of kindness, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So our talk today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: 4:26

What I wanna do is I wanna have some fun with you guys this week, and we are gonna do a gratitude challenge. Okay, so you can do it with someone you came to church with. You can do it with your spouse. You can do it. Maybe you're part of our Alpha Small Group. You can do it with someone in your group, but I encourage you to do this gratitude challenge with someone. If you have no one to do it with, you can do it with me. I love it. And so, from Sunday night to Thursday night, I want us to do this challenge. I wanna give us three practical things to do, super practical things to do that will instill in you a heart of gratitude. Here's the thing. You only gotta do it for these next few days At the word, you can go back to being grumpy complaining, but I actually believe if you do these things consistently for the next few days, it will start you on a journey of you living the life you really want to live Now. I know that's a big statement, but I'm serious, okay. So our gratitude challenge is this we got three challenges. The first one is this Gratitude challenge number one change your perspective through praise and print.

Speaker 1: 5:29

Praise and print. Yes, there are prints. Okay, we're talking about writing some things down because in order to choose gratitude and change our perspectives, we have to speak it out. When we gotta write it down, we have to speak it out and write it down. Psalm 100, verse four says this enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name. I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in the message Bible. He says enter with the password. Thank you, I love that. Make yourselves at home, talk in praise. We need to be good at talking praise. We need to be good at just talking about the good things God is doing. It's so easy to be negative. It's so easy to complain about people. It's so easy just to get caught up in that conversation. I want to be a kind of person that I'm talking about the good that people are doing, talk in praise, thank him, worship him.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Now there's an interesting story in the gospels about gratitude that we're going to highlight kind of for this whole challenge. It's found in Luke 17. Check it out. It says this on his way to Jerusalem, jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee as he was going into a village. The village people said why am I seeing it? No, Was that not Okay? Okay, as he was going into a village man that was kind of funny a little bit as he was going into a village, 10 men who had leprosy met him.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Often, people with leprosy were isolated. It's a skin disease. In the Jewish culture. You would be considered unclean so you couldn't be around other people and you would make them unclean. You were isolated by yourself. And this is where we find these 10 men who had leprosy. They stood at a distance and called out on a loud voice Jesus, master, have pity on us. Now I want to highlight this the leprosy, desperation and humility are evident as they stood at a distance, acknowledging Jesus as their master, crying out first of mercy. And this is what I want you to get. Gratitude often emerges from a humble heart recognizing that we cannot accomplish everything on our own.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Story continues. It says when he saw them, he said he said something kind of weird to them. He says go show yourselves to the priests. Now they're crying out to Jesus. They're saying, hey, jesus, we need help. Jesus looks at them, he's sees them from a distance and he says go show yourself to a priest. Why did he do that? Why did he say that? What does that mean? Now, the reason why Jesus says that? Because in that society, if you are unclean, if you were isolated, when you got healed, when you got better, before you can rejoin society, you had to check in with the priests and they were doing an exam on you. If you were good, if you were clean, then you would be reinstated back into society. Jesus speaks to them and says oh yeah, okay, go ahead and show yourself to the priests. This is interesting. It continues. As they went, they were cleansed.

Speaker 1: 8:35

I love their immediate obedience. I love their immediate obedience. A couple of answers. You guys, oftentimes I struggle with a thing called delayed obedience, like I'm obedient after I complain for a little bit. I'm obedient after I make excuses on why I can't and why I shouldn't. You want to know another way to label delayed obedience? I'll do it, god, when it's convenient for me, but their immediate obedience happens. When Jesus instructed them to show themselves to the priests, the lepers didn't question or hesitate. They obeyed immediately. Gratitude often involves responding promptly to God's guidance and blessings, trusting his wisdom and authority. This part, though, this part, is always interesting to me. Okay, text does not tell us they were instantly healed when Jesus spoke to them. Text doesn't tell us that they are still sick. They're still sick. Their healing wasn't immediate, but their obedience was. They started their walk to the priests while still being sick, while still in the same condition. Now, I just want to add to that Oftentimes, obedience comes before healing.

Speaker 1: 9:54

Oftentimes, obedience comes first. The problem is, though, often we want the healing first, and then we'll be obedient, because we have brought into a lie about a Christianity that says Jesus should follow you and make what you want happen, instead of us following the good shepherd. And this is what happens to us. And then we get upset and we get disgruntled and we say Jesus, why didn't you do this? And Jesus, why didn't you do that? And Jesus, why didn't you do this for me? And Jesus might be saying I'm back and saying well, I never told you to go there. I never told you to do that thing. I never even said that to you. See, I'm going to. Sometimes obedience comes before the breakthrough. So I'm going to walk in obedience even though my circumstance hasn't changed. I'm going to believe for healing before healing has taken place. I'm going to speak good about my kids, even when they're driving me crazy. I'm going to put God first in my finances, even when I'm trying to figure my budget out.

Speaker 1: 10:57

The 10 lepers walked before healing took place. And this is the cool part of the story. Sometimes I read the Bible and I just started laughing. Sometimes I read the Bible and this makes me laugh, because here you go, there's these 10 lepers. They're crying out, they're isolated. They say, hey, help us Jesus. And Jesus is like go, show yourselves to the priests. And they just start to walk. And I'm thinking to myself they're probably like man. They're walking, their skin all falling off literally. And they're like man. Why are we walking to the priests? Man? I thought that Jesus guy was going to help us out. I heard he changed water into wine. I wanted somebody to have wine too. And they're getting mad and they're walking. And while they're walking, they're walking and all of a sudden, one of the guys are like eating a sandwich. Yo, jimmy, yo, jimmy, your skin ain't falling off, no more. Jimmy, look at your skin. And then Jimmy's like dude and he's like sweet and he's like dude, your skin. And he's like I'm healed. And then they start walking them, probably a little bit faster, to the priest. They're like yo, we're about to show ourselves to the priest, we're about to be back in society, we're about to be back there. They're going to pump. Check this out, though. Tech says this their skin changes their height. One of them Wait a minute.

Speaker 1: 12:22

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back. Wait a second, wait a second. Jesus healed 10, but one came back. And what did he do when he came back? What did this one do when he came back? When the one came back, he came back praising God in a loud voice. He came back with the password thank you. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked them. He was a Samaritan. Jesus asked were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to praise God, except this foreigner that he said to him rise up, your faith has made you well. I love this because the one that came back was a Samaritan. The unlikely one came back, and this is what I want to say. The other ones were healed and kept going.

Speaker 1: 13:15

But what does gratitude do for us?

Speaker 1: 13:17

What does a spirit of gratitude do?

Speaker 1: 13:19

What does a choice of gratitude do?

Speaker 1: 13:21

Gratitude redirects our praise back to where it belongs. See the other nine. They had an encounter with God and they had an encounter with Jesus and they were healed, but they kept going, say they had salvation, but I want you to know today, there's more to your life than just salvation. There's more to your walk with Jesus than just the moment that you give you, say, a salvation prayer. He has something for your life that is beyond just one prayer and this man, he comes back in his gratitude and he worships God and upon realizing he was healed, he returned to Jesus with I love this with loud praise. He got loud about it Because you want to know what else is very loud, negative people, negative circumstances, things that try to drain the light. They are loud, aren't they? And obnoxious and all up in our face. But he came with a loud praise because he says my praise has to outshine the negative in my life. Come on, man, am I preaching to anyone in here today?

Speaker 1: 14:32

See, gratitude should prompt us to return to God, not just for the blessings, but to express our heartfelt thanks and praise for what he has done in our lives. See, we gotta get into the spiritual habit of praise, because when you get into the spiritual habit of praise, it conquers entitlement. It comes against negativity. It allows you to see, I may not be where I want to be, but I'm not where I could be and I'm thinking, god, I'm heading to where I want to be. See, we gotta listen. Here's the challenge I encourage you this week. Every day, once a day, listen to one worship song. Just turn on one worship song and listen and praise God.

Speaker 1: 15:12

I heard a great story the other week about a couple that comes to our church. The wife said that she woke up because she also had heard this loud music and she was like who is bumping music at six in the morning? And then, as she was listening, she was like wait a minute, is that worship music? And then she kept listening to some more. She's like is that my husband singing worship music, and then she was like all right, I like it, it's good, it's good, but I love it. Her husband was doing his morning time, devotional six in the morning, praising God.

Speaker 1: 15:44

See, I want you to know something today when you intentionally praise God, it changes the trajectory of your day. It changes the trajectory of your day. We have to praise, we gotta speak it out, and here you go, and then and if you've been coming to LVC for a little over a year now, you know what I'm about to say Because we gotta speak it out. But then we gotta write it down and we have to start thankfulness journals. We have to start thanking God and documenting what God is doing in our lives, because I don't know about you, but I have a thing called spiritual amnesia. Well, sometimes I forget about what God has done in my life and I complain about because he hasn't done what I thought he should be doing. But when you write it down, when you document it, you can look back and say, oh dang, god did this for me, god came through here for me, and when we document it it moves us forward. So start a thankfulness journal.

Speaker 1: 16:45

First lesson only in five says this rejoice always, pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you and Christ Jesus. Now I gotta say something about this verse, though, because this is one of those Bible verses that bothers me. These are the ones, these Bible verses, I've read and I'm like all circumstances, you want me to praise you, you want to give thanks in all circumstances of life. See, here's the truth. Here's the truth.

Speaker 1: 17:12

If you aren't bothered by reading the Bible at times, you're probably not reading the Bible the right way, because sometimes we can read the Bible and we can just read it like okay, I want that to agree with everything I believe in. Okay, I want that verse, okay, that's gonna agree. But when you read the Bible and say, okay, god, I'm open for you to change my heart and you speak to me, that's the way to read the Bible. Okay, but here you go, here you go. But all circumstances and I gotta make this make sense, because is this verse saying that thankfulness is a duty, like it's a duty to be thankful? Be thankful because I said so. Oh God, my life is crumbling like crumble cookies Some good cookies and God's like I don't care. You better just be thankful. Is that what that verse is saying? Friends? Friends, thankfulness is not a duty.

Speaker 1: 18:09

But what this scripture is telling us is this in every circumstance, thankfulness is possible. It's possible, but how? Because there are some circumstances in life that just do not seem thankful, and that's why we have to print it. We have to write it down, we have to get into spiritual habit of daily writing down at least one thing that happened in our day that we're thankful for. I started this journey of a thankfulness journal a little over two and a half years ago and currently I have over 1,000 things that my wife has done that I'm thankful for.

Speaker 1: 18:47

You want to know when that's good. When you get an argument with your spouse, when you're having a hard time, you can reflect and look back on it. Okay, there's good even in this thing. We have to have daily habit of writing this down. And what I do every night and this is my routine, this is what I do every night, this is my routine. And here's the thing all of us have routines and you are getting the results that the routine that you have set up in your life is giving you. Just to let you know, okay, whatever results you have in your life is based on the routine that you have, but I have an intentional routine that we put Kingsley down for bed, I walk down the stairs, I do what's called an examine of my day, where I spend time with Jesus and I go over my day hour by hour, and I ask Jesus the question show me where you were in this moment, in that moment in my day, in the good and the bad.

Speaker 1: 19:35

I go over it and I just talk to Jesus and after that I grab my iPad, because you ain't gonna catch me with no pen and paper. I write it down. You be like what did I say? I can't even read after that, but I write one thing down that Jesus did in my day that I'm thankful for. For example, the other day I was at the airport. I love the airport, it was awesome. And while I was at the airport I think, god, that I had time to be silent, which is my thoughts. I got kids, man, they ain't never silent, so I was thankful for that. But then I write one thing that Aaron did, one thing that Kingsley did, one thing that Jameson did, one thing that my son Hayden did and they're super short, like the other day. I was just thankful that Hayden's walking better, like he's starting to walk better. The other day I was thankful that Jameson learned how to count to 10. And then the other day I was thankful that Aaron didn't go to Target that day, hallelujah.

Speaker 1: 20:29

But seriously, this week the challenge. Here's the challenge every night this week. So on Thursday night, so on Sunday night to Thursday night, write one thing that happened in your day that you're thankful for. Make it easy for yourself. Put a pen, put a notepad on your pillow in the morning so you know when you go to bed. You got to write one thing down. Make it easy for yourself, do it, and it will change you. So we got to praise, listen to the worship song. We got to print. We're going to write it down. Challenge number two and, james, you can come up here for me. Challenge number two Deepen your faith.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Deepen your faith. Okay, how are we going to deepen our faith? How is gratitude going to deepen our faith? What does that mean? What does that mean? What do I mean by faith? Okay, when we talk about faith, this is a whole message I'm gonna preach next year, but for the time being I'm gonna give you a summary.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Faith is kind of found in three levels. There's kind of three levels of faith. There's the first level is kind of basic and everyone has this faith. Everyone has a basic level of faith, whether you're a believer in Jesus or you believe in science or believe in whatever you believe in something. What is faith? Faith is you are trusting your life to a set of values or ideas. So everyone kind of has a basic level of faith. Whatever you believe in, you have a basic level of faith.

Speaker 1: 21:41

But then there's a second level of faith and there's a faith of desperation. And this is where we see the 10 lepers in the story. They were desperate, they were stuck in a place that they did not want to be in anymore and they needed help. They saw Jesus was passing through, they heard the stories about Jesus, so they cried out with a desperate faith for help and as they walked they were healed. And then one comes back. One comes back to Jesus with praise and gratitude for the healing.

Speaker 1: 22:12

And I just gotta say something that's real fast about this this desperate faith, this desperate faith, this desperate faith helping everyday people learn how to become Jesus follower. That's our mission here as a church to help everyday people, everyday people, your normal people, your everyday people that got. They got bill problems, they got family problems, they got stuff going on this everyday people who are a little bit desperate because the way life is going may not be the way they thought life was gonna go for them. And they're searching, they're looking. They may grab this thing, they may work too much or they may get angry at their kids or they may try this drug. They may try this thing and they're because they're desperate for something that's real and friends.

Speaker 1: 22:47

When I look at the empty chairs in this auditorium, I don't sometimes see just like chairs. I see stories of people that are desperate and that we have the story of the gospel that can meet people in their desperation. I don't know about you guys, but when I met Jesus, I was desperate for something different in my life. I was desperate and I met Jesus and it changed the entire trajectory of my life and friends, here at LVC we will go after the people who are desperate for help, desperate for Jesus, desperate for life change. I can't settle, I can't be okay with empty chairs, no more. I can't be okay. And it's not because we just wanna put butts in seats, but because there's stories that need to change, there's generational curses that need to be broken, there's hope that needs to be given.

Speaker 1: 23:43

And, friends, let it be said of LVC that we changed Melothea in Virginia for Jesus oh, come on, man, I'm preaching too hard for you guys. Let it be said of us that we're desperate for God's touch, that I'm gonna live. I'm gonna live my life in a place of gratitude, not about just me, but about the people out there and so and so there's this desperate faith, and the 10 lepers had desperate faith and I love that Jesus. Jesus sees these 10 lepers. He was passing through, he was going to Jerusalem. He has something else to do at his time but he stopped and he spoke to the desperate people. Oh yeah, friends, our lives that busy and that important that we can't see the people around us that need us. He stopped and he saw them, he spoke to them and then one came back, and this is what I love. One came back. One came back. One came back because we're gonna do for the one that we wanna do for the many. One came back praising God and where his faith moved from basic to desperate, to a third level of faith and that's surrendered. He had a surrendered faith. He came back praising God, surrendered. And here's the thing you think you're living a life of surrender until things don't go the way you want, and so things don't go, and this happened to Aaron and I.

Speaker 1: 25:09

A lot of you know this story. A lot of you know the story of this church. Starting at LVC, we moved up here in 2019, leaving friends, leaving family, leaving a good church. I could have worked there for the rest of my life, leaving all this stuff. We built our launch team. We launched January 2020, the same day Kobe died. That was a sign. Right there, 265 people come out open in day. We do six services.

Speaker 1: 25:37

Covid happens Left me confused, lost and confused. We left everything to start an online church based in Richmond, virginia, for disgruntled people in Virginia Beach. Like that's not what I signed up for, that's not what I thought we were gonna do. Whatever you want me to do, lord, I tell you it's not the way I want it to be done. And this is a long story, but the power of the story was this because of COVID, I had to become the primary watcher of our daughter, kingsley, so I watched her because we had to take her out to daycare, the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 26:13

And two things happened to my soul in that year. Two things happened to my soul that healed my soul. I found a new love for spiritual habits, and then I found a new love to play Spiritual habits and play deepened my faith and started me on a journey of surrender to Jesus. Because before I learned how to play, I thought everything was based on me. I thought about how good I can preach, how many systems I can set up, how many things I can do, but then I found, with playing with my little daughter, there was more to life than numbers and stats and prestige.

Speaker 1: 27:04

And this is what I want you to say You're gonna be like Jager. How are you gonna make this connection? How are you gonna make this connection to deepen our faith through play? Aren't we supposed to be like super holy to deepen our faith? Aren't we supposed to be like sitting on a mountain and being so much and prayer that we start levitating Blu-du-du-du-du-du. Isn't that what it means? Aren't we supposed to become like a monk or something? No, no, no. It's absurd Now, but this was part of my purpose, because my father used to tell me that I used to talk about this as living there.

Speaker 1: 27:47

But it started with it was like okay, man, don't look at your Holy Spirit and we part let it shine. Always look at your Holy Spirit, but when I'm around him I feel better about life. I laugh with him and for you. I want you to take a moment and think the last time you had a good, hard laugh and think about who you were with when you did that. Who are your favorite people to laugh with? Tell them about it. Shoot them a text and say hey, man, I'm thankful for you. You make me laugh and they're like that's a weird text just playing me, say my pastor told me to do it. Our gratitude grows as we name it and share it. What are the things that make you laugh? Whatever it is?

Speaker 1: 28:38

Laughing is clinically proven to improve your life. Laughter will improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity and contrast. Positive thoughts actually release things that help you fight stress and potentially more serious illnesses. Laughter can relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce more natural pain killers. Laughter will increase your satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations and helps you connect with other people. Laughter will improve your mood.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses. Laughter can help you lessen your depression and anxiety and make you feel happy. We gotta laugh. This week I encouraged you to have it and this week I encouraged you to play for parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles Get on the floor and play with your kids. There's an older gentleman in our church who has a preteen kid and he said I intentionally go on bike rides with him. He says there's a lot of hills in Richmond, but he knows that intentional time with his son means everything. It means everything. See, lawrence Cohen says it like this in the book Playful Parenting. Video screens can offer many useful things Entertainment, information, even distraction from stress but they can't make goofy faces, they can't give hugs or provide a deep sense of safety and security. That's our job. Friends, people. Okay. Okay, I talked to parents. But friends is people. Hang out with your friends. We got a group of people in our church who love to play tennis together. Come on, who plays tennis? They play tennis, they play soccer together. They hang out, get together and around good people. Spouses, you know how you can play. Come on somebody.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Proverbs 17, 22 says this a cheerful heart is good medicine. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Ecclesiastes 8, 15 is one of my favorite Bible verses. Right here he says so. I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world to eat, drink and enjoy life. Can I get a good amen on that one? Come on everybody that they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. Deepen your faith through laughter and play. That leads to a life of gratitude. Challenge one praise and print, starting to grab the mindfulness journal. Challenge two deepen your faith, laugh and play this week. And my last challenge I'm gonna close with this be kind to yourself and others Anytime holidays approach you.

Speaker 1: 31:30

It can be a sore subject for certain people. It can be a reminder how things didn't go the way they hoped this year and it's easy to not be kind to ourselves. But I wanna encourage you today. The Bible says the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance. What does that mean? It means God's kindness leads to life change. Choose, and gratitude will inspire you to lead a life of kindness, first to yourself. Friends, we gotta stop the negative self-talk. We can't talk to ourselves negative anymore, even little jabs, even little comments. Stop it. Stop putting yourself down, stop believing those lies. And then, to others, be kind to the people around you. Intentionally bless someone this week, send a text to someone, tell them what they mean to you.

Speaker 1: 32:26

This year we're doing our local miracle gift coming up. Our local miracle gift is coming up and our focus this year and it came from having a, it came from me having a good conversation with a friend at a coffee shop. Come on, that's where all the good things happen at coffee shops, right? And the question that we started asking ourselves is how is our church helping small businesses and small businesses and small businesses and small business owners in our community? Here you go. Our church planted it right here, and what does the plant do? It grows, doesn't it? And it adds a vibrancy to the things around it. See, our hope at local vineyard, like we mentioned earlier, is not this is what we want from you, but our hope is our church will be a plant that will be a flower that will shine beauty, and this is what we want for people.

Speaker 1: 33:16

And so this year, for our local miracle gift, what we're going to do is we are going to. We are going to intentionally embrace all the small businesses around the school. There's a lot of them and this holiday season, our church, our church family, is rallying together to raise funds, to spread love. Through our local miracle gift. We are spreading cheer to nearby local business by gifting their hardworking staff with Christmas baskets full of treats. That's what we're going to do. We're going to bring. We're going to bring gift baskets to them. These gifts are about connect, are about creating meaningful connections. Here you go, but along with these personal deliveries, we're going to include a card and this is the most important part right here, because the treats are good, but this is the most important part Inviting them to not to come to church, not to say oh, here's a gift, come to our church. No, no, no, no, no, no. Inviting them to share ways that our church can lend a hand to them and serve them.

Speaker 1: 34:12

This upcoming year, we're going to engage small business owners with the question how can our church help your business thrive? How can it help you? How, if they want us to pass out flyers, okay, if they need help paying us something, we're in it, we're doing it. We're going to be a light to our community. We're going to show kindness and acting, loving, and this is how do we participate in this? Each box is going to cost roughly $25 to $30. And so, in the upcoming weeks, erin's going to come up here and she's going to say how many boxes we are going to encourage you to sponsor, because our goal, our faith goal, is we want to hit 50 small businesses nearby us and bless them, make a meaningful connection with them, because here's the thing, here's the thing, guys. Gotta just be honest with you. If our church closed tomorrow, would anyone even notice? Would anyone in our community even care? And if we're not sure if they would care, that means we have to step up and be a light in our community, and that's what we're going to do. Okay, that's what we're going to do.

Speaker 1: 35:22

So, to make it practical for you this week, though, gratitude leads to kindness, so the challenge for you this week is this be kind to yourself, get some sleep, come on, get some rest, speak positive words over yourself, go for a walk, maybe finally sign up to meet that counselor that you know you need to meet. Be kind to others. Send a text message of encouragement. Bring a box of donuts to the office, give your spouse a back rub, come on, take your kid out for ice cream just the two of you. And if you do these three things, if you praise and start a thankfulness journal, if you laugh and play, if you're kind to yourself and others, friends, I guarantee you will be thankful that you did.

Speaker 1: 36:17

God, Jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your love and your goodness. We want more of you, lord. We want more of you in our lives. Yeah, even as I was sharing in worship earlier, through prayer, lord, you come into our households, but also through gratitude, through a spirit of saying I'm gonna look at the good in life.

Speaker 1: 36:52

I'm not going and that's what the Lord is saying, that's not you saying I'm not going to acknowledge the bad. Now, you gotta acknowledge the bad. You gotta name it in order to attain it. You gotta acknowledge the bad. But I'm going to choose to give thanks in all circumstances, Because I was like the Holy Spirit saying this to some people he wants you to know that your worth doesn't come from the circumstances in your life, but your worth comes because you are a son, you are a daughter of the most high God and he's for you even in that thing.

Speaker 1: 37:33

You know what your that thing is. You know the thing that's causing you to lose some sleep. You know the thing that's causing you some stress. You know the thing that's threatening your marriage. You know the thing that's putting a wedge between you and your kids. He says he's with you even in that thing. So come, holy Spirit. Come, holy Spirit. Give us courage to be thankful. Help us lean into you and help us for these next few days to do this challenge that we're going to praise you, god, and we're going to write it. We're going to laugh and we're going to play. We're going to be kind to ourselves and others. We need you, lord, and we want you in Jesus name, amen, let's give God some praise in here today.