Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
This podcast was intended to resource our Dream Teamers at LifePoint Church, with biblical fundamentals on worship, life and a variety of leadership principles.
Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
SUNDAY REWIND: A Life of Gratitude
Imagine finding true peace and contentment in a world overwhelmed by materialism and technology. This episode wraps up our Journey series with a heartfelt discussion on virtues that guide us toward a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ. As we celebrate the success of this journey, we emphasize the role of honor and loyalty in our personal lives and within our families, particularly in a community as dynamic as an army town. The commitment to growth, flexibility, and gratitude shines throughout our conversation, highlighting the strength we've built as a spiritual community.
Okay, what's up guys? Welcome back to the Sunday Rewind.
Speaker 2:The last one, I know, for this series anyway, for this series at least. Are we planning to do this again?
Speaker 1:Yes, we got the thumbs up from Jacob, all right. Well, that's fun.
Speaker 2:I mean I enjoy it. I hope it's helpful.
Speaker 1:It is, it is.
Speaker 2:I've had a number of people actually compliment that follow-up podcast. It was a great idea. Good job to to you and Jacob and Elmer and Willie and whoever put it together. Yes, I think you were just roped into the hosting.
Speaker 1:You weren't in the idea space, right, I was totally not there. I am here now.
Speaker 2:Let's take all the credit.
Speaker 1:Look, no, look, no, we're just carrying the weight now.
Speaker 2:That's what we're doing Me too.
Speaker 1:We're just carrying the weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last week. Eight weeks of this series, yes, coming to a close, I know it's like.
Speaker 2:I am just so grateful to be here Well truly our hope is this whole series, the way I've been describing it. In every Sunday, each sermon stacks on the last sermon. So this discipleship series, the goal of this and the podcast and the resources and everything else, is to help lead you in full devotion to Jesus Christ. And, honestly, this is now material that you need to give away, you need to share with somebody else. You need to take people on this journey and you don't need to wait on a pulpit to do it, like take five people from work and just say, hey, let's do this series together and just do it. So the the reason we have these podcasts, the rewind and everything is to help facilitate resources for people that want to take people on a journey.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you, it's the. I mean, it is the great commandment. Go and teach the people all that I've commanded you Like. Go and teach them. Teach them what you've learned so well. Thank you once again.
Speaker 2:Good job to you.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yay, we. I feel like that it's like the finish line, but yet just it's fun, it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 2:I do want to tell you you've done a great job hosting these rewinds. I know you haven't really ever done it before, but you've done a great job.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, Good job. Thank you Way to be flexible way to grow intentionally. Yeah, and just have an attitude of gratitude.
Speaker 2:That's right. Come on, let's talk about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, I'm me and my icebreakers, it's okay. What is what do you think your strongest virtue is? Like? What do you think the one thing I know, like go ahead, brag. We're just like, we're just brag on yourself real quick. Like what do you think that you or you could, you could lump in your family with you as a whole, you and your family as a whole? What do you think your family is just really good at that. You're actually really proud of your family for being, for having blank virtue.
Speaker 2:Well, that is a very hard question, thank you. I like to tell people I pride myself on my humility. It is, it's a joke, but you know, michael Scott, you remember in the office when David Wallace is like what is it about you that's so great? He's like do I care too much? Do I anyway? It's a hard question to answer, but I will say, rather than what is my best virtue, let me just say a couple of virtues that I really value is, uh, one is honor.
Speaker 2:I just believe in honoring people, um, taking people at face value, seeing potential, seeing the good in them, and I I think that comes from a heart of honor. I love honoring leaders that lead in my life. I don't ever want to take advantage of those relationships and I like to, just I like to honor people for where they're at in their journey with Jesus. I mean, we've got folks that have never known the gospel, never walked with Christ, never, or coming out of addiction, and we've got folks that are, you know, board members at a local church and pastors, and you, just you, treat people well, no matter their station of life, their state. I just love to honor people. I think I'm a pretty loyal person. I just think loyalty is really important and that is a very much a forgotten virtue in our culture.
Speaker 2:My family, um, I think my family's learned a lot about loyalty and perseverance and like just kind of gritty. You know, we've been through a lot as a family just to lead a church. And Stephanie has said for years, like pastoring a church in an army town is like pastoring a parade, and the. What she means by that is there's, there's just a lot of people coming and going, like in a parade, you stand in one place and the parade moves. And we've had folks that are here for two or three years and some that have been here for 15 years and, um, you, just you, you learn to hold relationships with an open hand because they can PCS or move with the army or go work at another church somewhere and then all of a sudden their family's gone as well. So our, our kids have learned some of that grit and just the like, just the stick it out, you're the, you're going to be here. If everybody else parades on through, we're going to grit it out and be here. So I think they've learned perseverance and just stick-to-itiveness.
Speaker 1:Is that Grit, it's grit, it is grit, and that is definitely something that can't be learned. I have learned that Grit is something that just happens. It just happens within you, and I can attest to that with your kiddos and your family. And if I may brag on your kiddos for a second, I'm not going to call out which one, but, um, throughout the summer I was able to get to know a couple of your girls through just students and camp and all of that, and, uh, and one of your girls ended up writing me a handwritten thank you card about how grateful she was that I was able to help her through something. Well, that's cool and I just so. Good job dad. Oh yeah, good job dad. I don't take any credit on that, that's for sure. Good job dad. Good job, stephanie.
Speaker 2:I have the worst handwriting so I'd send you a text. So I try to do handwritten notes too, but yeah, they do love this place and they love the relationships that they get to have, and so anyway, yeah, which one do you think you could get better at which?
Speaker 2:virtue do you think you could get better at? You're talking from the ones I've mentioned today in the message Humility, honestly, I think, just the nature of my job and being a visible front-facing leader and a speaker and the story of our church. I just want to stay humble. I really do. But I know that I fight that Generosity, like I forced myself to be generous and I believe in generosity and I forced myself to be generous. But you know, we always give our history as an excuse for why we're not good at something. And I grew up broke and poor, so like our history as an excuse for why we're not good at something. And I grew up broke and poor, so like I can be very greedy, so I have to be generous and I just I really don't struggle with the discipline of generosity as much as just the constant desire of generosity. So, and I think that's more baggage than character flaw, you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying I just so.
Speaker 2:I'd like to grow, and that's just me being really honest, invulnerable, but I could probably grow in a lot of virtues, including naming my virtues. Is that a virtue? Honesty?
Speaker 1:let's hope it's one how about you?
Speaker 2:what's your? What's a virtue that you would like to emulate more in your life? I listed a bunch of them in my sermon today yeah, you did. I would probably say you can't take this long. It's dead air on the radio. It doesn't work, it's okay. So, I mentioned honor, humility, generosity, courage, integrity, faith, modesty, purity, simplicity, loyalty, fidelity, compassion, patience, friendliness, love, commitment, privacy, contentment, wisdom, trustworthiness, leadership, kindness, self-control and then, of course, gratitude.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So take a pick, you know, honestly, probably self-control. I would love to work on that one because I can be a little squirrely Anybody that knows me knows I can be very squirrely and that can bleed into other things of just kind of chasing what's fun right now.
Speaker 2:Are you the friend that people would call like, hey, you want to go whatever. And you're like come on, let's go. Yes, You're the let's go adventure girl. Absolutely that's funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't even tell me where we're going, Say hey, do you want to go?
Speaker 2:And?
Speaker 1:I'm like absolutely. Are you still that?
Speaker 2:way 100%. But you're married with kids Like this. Is hard to be that way at this stage of your life.
Speaker 1:Okay, so my kid is a senior, and so now she is just coming with me. I'm like let's go, like let's go adventure. She's like great yay, but like great yay. But honestly, self-control would definitely be one, because I'm definitely a seven, I want to go find the fun thing to do and not do the hard thing?
Speaker 1:But yeah, awesome. Well, one thing is virtue. Well, you said, virtue isn't for you to notice, it's for others to be drawn to the God that you serve. That is one of the notes that I wrote down in my words, obviously. But why do you think that God placed very specific things, one of them being gratitude and just having a thankful heart? Why do you think God was so intentional about saying all of the gratitude and the thankfulness over and over and over again? Why do you think that mattered to him?
Speaker 2:Yeah, humans are selfish, right, and if we're not careful we forget. I mean we forget the benefit. He says give thanks to the Lord, forget not all his benefits. It's so easy to forget what God has done when we're only focused on what we're waiting on him to do next or what we think he should have done sooner or what he hasn't done yet. And I think the human condition is sinful, the human condition is selfish, the human condition is self-focused, and the opposite of that is gratitude. It's kind of like greed is also part of our human condition, and so the antidote to that is generosity.
Speaker 2:But gratitude seems to be a very consistently recurring challenge for the believer throughout Scripture. That's why Paul says rejoice. I'm telling you again, rejoice. That's a form of gratitude, that's a form of thankfulness. Give thanks to the Lord always. Right, there's just this. I think it was 58 times. There's a command to give thanks. There's not a command for a lot of those other virtues I mean, humble yourself is pretty frequent, be faithful. But gratitude is a very recurring command in Scripture, and I think it's because our heart is selfish, but when you're thankful it takes your eyes off of yourself to the one who's done for you. And I really focused my message today on giving thanks to God. But I can be thankful to you.
Speaker 2:I can be, thankful to coworkers or friends, neighbors, I can just say thanks more and live with an attitude of gratitude more often, and it just forces you to take the eyes off yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it forces you to take the eyes off yourself. Yeah, how do you think God really feels about when we are just blessed abundantly and we're trying, but some like do you think he ever thinks, man, they just missed the mark on this.
Speaker 2:Oh, gratitude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and to be honest with you, I feel like I do have. Could I get better at just having an attitude of gratitude? Yeah, because sometimes I just want to be a grump, but for the most part and I think a lot of people who know me just know that I'm just happy to be here. I'm just very thankful to be here. And I wonder if sometimes God just looks down and goes you know what, let's just crank it up a little bit. You just missed the mark on a little bit. What are some of those moments that you think God could kind of go? Hey, I'm going to test you in this.
Speaker 2:I think God is always drawing us and pushing us. I don't think he's ever like tricking us or whatever. Mm-hmm. I shared that story at the end of the sermon, as people were writing the 10 things they're grateful for which. What a great exercise by the way.
Speaker 2:Luke 17,. Jesus heals 10 men with leprosy and he tells them also if you're a leper, you're literally castigated out of town, you can't worship, you can't come to church or temple services, you can't be around your own family, you have to stay in this colony outside of town. You have to stay in this colony outside of town. And so his first thing after he heals him he says go to the priest and show him you've been healed, which then opens them back up to worship and church or temple service and they can be with their family again and buy and sell in the marketplace, like they are back into town and society. And only one of those 10 guys came back and thank Jesus. So this is Luke 17. The one guy comes back, bows down at the feet of Jesus and thanks him profusely and Jesus is like okay, you're welcome. And then he says this this is amazing.
Speaker 2:Jesus said weren't there 10 of you? Where's the other nine that I healed? And that guy, poor dude, he's like I don't know, I'm here. And so you know, of course the Lord's thankful, but he's noticed that those guys missed the mark to your point. So I definitely think the Lord notices it and I think he cares and I think he is gracious to us and will give us more opportunities to be grateful. I don't think he has a threshold where he's like, well, I'm just going to destroy your life now. But definitely I think the Lord notices and here's the greater thing Like if he notices we're not grateful like on a scale of one to 10, that's probably If he notices we're not grateful like on a scale of one to 10, call it a three where it piques his interest.
Speaker 2:I think that we are grateful. On a scale of 10 is a 10 for him. I think he's more excited that we are grateful than he is angry that we're not grateful. Does that make sense, pastor Chris said Hodges, he said faith moves the heart of God and I think faith moves the heart of God and I think gratitude moves the heart of God, I think virtue moves the heart of God.
Speaker 2:Honor and loyalty and providence and fidelity and purity I think all those things move the heart of God and I think when you are grateful, the Lord takes special note of that. That's what I think. But yeah, we do miss the mark all the time. I mean, have you ever gotten something totally out of? You know, you get something that it's in the category of what you want, but it's not the thing you want? Yes, and so you're like, ah, it's just not what I wanted, versus, wow, I didn't have this before. Yeah, I'm so grateful. I mean, that's kind of all of us right.
Speaker 1:I'm over here like yeah, I'm just like that is. I just keep thinking over and over and over again. And now the comment that I made that I was like I feel like I'm a pretty good, like grateful person. Now I'm like well, this, there's the, you know. Can I go back to my very my first statement? I would like to work on the virtue of being grateful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know I described that opening statement about entitlement and it's so funny when I I don't know if you heard it, but every service I go the word that describes the emerging generation of employees is entitled, and all these people like my age and older are like yeah, ooh, you know what I'm going. Wait a minute, these are your kids. And I said that one of the services. And there's a lady who I'm good friends with her. She's sitting about four rows back and she goes oh Lord, here we go, like you could just see it on her face. She goes wow, that's a burn. And it's true. Yeah, you know, we have empowered a lot of this. It's easy to blame culture, it's easy to blame phones, but we bought them phones or we.
Speaker 2:You know it's easy to blame technology, but stuff, honestly, I have a lot of thoughts about the over over exposure to tech and screens and all of that stuff for young people. But I think I think, beyond the ADD stuff or the attention ability to hold attention, all that stuff like it just fosters entitlement. Yes, I grew up broke and poor Like answer was no almost all the time. And when I was 11, I started working, so mowing grass, babysitting, raking leaves, and I literally worked to have anything, anything extra. I got one pair of shoes a year. At Christmas my mom would buy us a six-pack of tube socks, a pack of T-shirts and a new pack of underwear Once a year. I got that year.
Speaker 1:I got that and you wore until you wore them out, you know and they started out your, your school clothes, and then and then your play clothes, and then they morphed into the play clothes well then, I'm the youngest, so I got the hand-me-downs as well, a lot as until I outgrew my brothers.
Speaker 2:But I just remember earning money was a big deal and then what I spent it on was really, really important, because I, you know, I worked for that. And so I think when we um, I just did not grow up with things given to me and now I'm probably 45 in January I mean, that's not my situation. Now. I am a bit of an old man when it comes to my own kids, because all of their friends get everything they want and I don't do that with our kids.
Speaker 2:And part of it is because they don't need everything they think they want, they just don't. They don't need everything. But also there's a little bit of just old, like my grandfather was, my grandfather from deep Mississippi and he lived his whole life filtering through his experience and that's how he talked to us. And he lived his whole life filtering through his experience and that's how he talked to us, and so I kind of have a little bit of that in me. It's like I told my girls you would never have survived growing up in my house or the way I lived.
Speaker 1:You know like I remember walking if you want to go anywhere, you'd walk to school and well uphill, no we didn't get that much snow.
Speaker 2:I have walked to school. I've walked, I mean, like two hours to get somewhere because I just didn't have a ride. It was before cell phones. That was normal for us growing up. Well, we just knew we were independent, we were very independent and we were able to accomplish the things that we set out to accomplish because we knew how to just work for them. So anyway.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm just going on.
Speaker 2:An old man rant.
Speaker 1:It's okay Back. So anyway, I feel like I'm just going on. An old man rant Back in my day. I swear it's okay.
Speaker 2:I will be that old man on a porch.
Speaker 1:I will bring you a bottle of Geritol. But, talking about Entitlement, you gave us three steps on how to Become More gracious and have more gratitude and, as prayer for gratitude to the Lord, share your gratitude with others and write a list for what you're grateful for.
Speaker 2:I said pray it, say it, write it down, Right so?
Speaker 1:My husband thought you said pray it, don't spray it, not that, but pray it, say it, write it down. And so sometimes we can be blinded by what we are entitled to. So how can we try to combat the entitlement if we can't see it? So there might be people who are listening that are going well, you know, I think I'm okay, but in all actuality there's other people that might not be brave enough to step up and say hey, you're acting like a jerk.
Speaker 2:Right. So that's where I think it starts, in prayer. And the Holy Spirit is a guide for us. He is our comforter, he's our teacher, he's and he'll expose and convict us of sin, right. So Psalm 139 is a great prayer. Search me, o Lord. Know my inward parts. If there's any unpleasing part of me, say it and show me right.
Speaker 2:So start in prayer and then I really mean this from the bottom of my heart Submit yourself to your small group or to your accountability. So, if I'm being very transparent, there are certain people that I don't want to receive correction from about this kind of stuff. One of them is my wife, right, because she's my wife. I don't need her to be my Holy Spirit and she's too close to me. She's at my house and so if she tells me you're entitled or you have too many of a thing, or you have high expectations or whatever, I don't know why, but I just don't like that from her and I don't try to do that to her either. But I have friends and I have brothers in Christ. I have people in my small group and there are some folks that I specifically ask like, hey, if you see these things in me, because what happens when it's your wife or your spouse, it becomes a fight.
Speaker 2:But, what you need to do fight language and then bring it to a small group, bring it to your friends and say, hey, I was having conflict about this thing and do you see this in me? And then you gotta be willing to take it, you gotta be willing to hear it, so you gotta say it. I started with pray about it and then I said say it to somebody in your small group, so tell somebody how I'm trying to be more grateful, I'm trying to grow in gratitude. The other side of that is ask the question do you see entitlement in my life? Do you see greed? Or do you see maybe control or power play? And just ask and they will tell you if they love you.
Speaker 2:Hopefully they say it in a spirit of gentleness and meekness, you know, hopefully hopefully but that's why you do life with people, Cause they you kind of let down those barriers so people can talk to you in a real way. That's why you're in a small group.
Speaker 1:Well, but I think it's important, though especially in a small group sense is to prayerfully seek out those people who you know are there and placed by God not just by happenstance, not just in the group, because, just as you spoke, one of the virtues was privacy. You don't want everybody to be able to speak into your life.
Speaker 2:Well, and I don't need to know everybody's business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:Like just hold some stuff private in your own life, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Social media has become this place, especially where we just put everything out there and it's it's not necessary. Can you imagine a hundred years ago, literally, agrarian culture of America coming into the industrial age and and those kinds of folks reading all the things that we do on a daily basis? I'm going to Kohl's. I just took a picture of my dinner at my you know my chicken tenders at Chick-fil-A. They wouldn't, they would go.
Speaker 2:What in the world Do something with your life? I think sometimes we just put so much out there and maybe it's because we want to be seen or we want to be noticed. I don't know. I don't know why we do it. To be honest with you, but privacy is a kind of a missing and then and then if you do something wrong, people put it out there for you. Yeah, you don't even have the privilege of messing up in private anymore, like being guarded and protected. So like if you had a mistake at work, the last thing I'm going to do is go tell the whole church about it. But we have a culture that does that and that's weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you think we're kind of desensitized to?
Speaker 2:Those forgotten virtues. We're desensitized to the fact that those things matter anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and while you were just talking about it and people posting everything, every little thing that you do we were just talking about privacy, allowing everyone in. I don't know. I wonder if our culture is starting to become desensitized on what everybody else has. Once again. We're not grateful for just the simple things. So we're becoming number one we are entitled because we have everything at our fingertips and then number two you know, getting some envy, getting some, and I mean desensitized, just for the fact of we're constantly seeing people post, we're constantly seeing everybody else's things, that we tend to that that we're blinded by what we do have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pastor Wayne Francis, one of my good friends. He says social media is people's highlight reels. It's not real life. But they only put the best part of themselves on social media and then that's what induces envy and jealousy and all that kind of stuff. But it's not even real life. Yeah, you know that person who's put together in every single photo with a little smolder and perfect lighting. It's just not real. But that's what we live with, comparing ourselves to, and then we go. I'm not that I want to be that or we aspire.
Speaker 2:Actually, the, the, the trauma of social media is actually pretty real. Like there's quite a bit now documented by social scientists, sociologists, psychologists et cetera about the, the devastating effects of the comparison game and the dopamine hits of likes and all that kind of stuff on social media. But when you live your life as a as like a billboard of everything you're doing and you put everything up in your living room and your bathroom and you're everywhere in your house, it's like what's left of you and I just think there's something about. Okay, one thing Stephanie and I have really never done is a ton of social media about our family and in our house. Maybe once a year we'll put up a photo, maybe twice a year, of our family in our house, but we don't even put up our kids a lot because, like, that's, because that's a private place for us. You know, and even the idea of saying that's a private place feels people take it as like, well, what's wrong? That's creepy, that's weird, it's like no, it's just private, private's not bad.
Speaker 2:There's a new documentary out called Buy Now and it's the shopping conspiracy and it's got some of the OG leaders of Amazon and Timu and Sheen and all of these companies. There's this one guy. He's in the second largest garment manufacturing company on the planet. I think he said one in four dress shirts in the world they make. Well, the problem is everybody has everything they need, mostly in the West, and we keep buying more and more and more without getting rid of stuff. Or when we do get rid of stuff, it's really damaging to our country, our, our environment, right?
Speaker 2:Um, and then they're saying there's this whole section where they're saying how technology companies now are building technology to be replaced on a two-year cycle. So we live in this constant. Now we've kind of conditioned ourselves that every two years a new iPhone comes out and every couple years a new shoe drops and we've actually been unintentionally trained or well intentionally by others, trained on a one to two-year cycle. The fashion used to have four seasons, now it's two. One to two year cycle on. The fashion used to have four seasons, now it's two. And it's because, um, you know, they, they extend a season of when something's. It's kind of like before Labor Day and after Labor Day or whatever Memorial Day, but, um, there's stuff coming out.
Speaker 2:Some brands, some companies put out stuff every single week, new drops of things, and then you just, if you live online and you live in that world, you're just always wanting it and never feeling like you have enough. It makes me go into like we have a lot of Amish around us here in Clarksville and whenever I get around them I just kind of there's a bit of jealousy that I sense, not jealousy in a bad sense, but like a little jealousy. That man, you don't, you don't worry about a lot of the things that I worry about. Probably Once a year, every 18 months, for a long time and I'm supposed to go again in the first of the next year I go to a monastery outside of Louisville, kentucky.
Speaker 2:It's called what it's a monastery, a Catholic monastery, so it's called the Gethsemane Abbey. It's the oldest monastery in America Trappist Monastery. It's like 300 years old and they take a vow of poverty and silence and work so they don't talk. These monks there's like 40 of them, 50 of them that run this monastery they don't talk at all unless they have to. They work all day. They pray seven offices of prayer a day and they do it 365 days a year. They take a vow of poverty. They live in a 12 by 12 dorm room, basically with a twin size bed and a crucifix on the wall, and they just don't have stuff. They don't have smartphones, they're not on YouTube, they just don't care. And every time I go I'm reminded like the world is buzzing around me in every direction. And they have maintained such a simple life and they're thriving in it. It's just really humbling. But I think our world is conditioned as to want more. But the Lord, the opening talk of the series, god has more for you, god has more.
Speaker 2:He doesn't have more of the world for you. He has got more of himself for you, and that's what we should desire and that's what we should be grateful for that God is doing great things in me should be grateful for that.
Speaker 1:God is doing great things in me. So what do you think the correlation between having less stuff, just like in the monastery and going to a third-world country and all of that? You can ask anybody who goes on missions. Yes, we want to go and help these people get resources and stuff like that, but generally they are just happy, grateful people. Why do you think we can't get a grip on ourselves in the Western culture?
Speaker 2:There's a lot written on the psychology of materialism and what it does to you long-term, and in our culture we call it we've actually given it a positive name, we call it the American dream, right?
Speaker 2:So we called it Manifest Destiny in one season of our country's history which, at the cost of entire civilizations, we advanced west and called it our destiny. I mean we, just you, can label anything you want and make it feel right. I mean we, just you can label anything you want and make it feel right. But materialism greed. I think it has very, very consequential negative impacts on the human psyche and one of those is a constant lack of gratitude. You just can never be satisfied and it's insatiable hunger for more. And it's in money. I mean Paul writes about this the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and after, because of it, people wander from the faith, chasing after so many painful things. And I think that just fleshes out in a lot of different ways. So you can study, I mean, the psychology of materialism, what it does to your human psyche, and you know, typically folks with less material goods are the most generous, the most willing to serve and generally report a higher degree of contentment and happiness.
Speaker 2:But I want to be careful that I'm not painting with such a broad brush. I'm not trying to like. I don't necessarily have a problem with people having things. It's when things have them right when your car collection is so sacred your kids can't even bump into it, or you know the the money you've worked so hard to get and save that you'd never give it or enjoy it. It's just the issue of ownership of your heart. What's the Lord of your life?
Speaker 1:God has blessed you with it. You know we don't, we don't want to interesting. Yeah, Like God, God has blessed us to be able to live in this country with all of these things. What are we going to do with?
Speaker 2:it. So think about it Like we. You work really hard, you go to school, you get a degrees or whatever whatever kind of the story is and then you, you work hard, you save, and then you start acquiring things that you were begging God, lord, help me build a life, help me, raise my, help me. You put security cameras on it, you lock it all up, triple lock it. I mean, I walk around my house every night and make sure all the locks are locked and the lights are on or off appropriately, and that's what we do. We go and we start preserving and protecting the very blessing that we ask God for, and then that becomes the thing, instead of keeping an open hand and go. Lord, I can lose it all tomorrow. If you want me to, I mean, that's fine.
Speaker 1:But nobody really does that.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to do that. So I think a better antidote for all of that is just every day, go God, thank you. Thank you for all of this. I have it today and I will, I will honor you with it today. Pastor Chris Hodges at Highland says every single day he prays. Every single Sunday he prays. You know, he's got a church of 80,000 people or whatever it is, and he stands backstage before he goes out and he says Lord, today you've, you've let me stay and be the pastor of this church, and so I'm going to be the pastor again for another week and I'm here as long as you have me here. This is what he prays. Every week he goes.
Speaker 2:I'm here as long as you have me here and if you ever want to take me away or have me do something else, just let me know and I'll do it. And he says thank you, lord, for choosing me. It is my privilege to serve. He prays that every time he preaches and I just love that. Thank you, god for choosing me. I mean, here, I am at LifePoint. Same thing. As long as God wants me here, I'll do it. If he asks me to do something else, I'll go do something else, but as long as you have me here, god, I'm thankful to be here. Thank you, lord. Just a better attitude.
Speaker 1:It is Well seriously, thank you for being here and doing this Like it's my privilege. Yeah, he says my privilege. Yeah, it's been fun. So, out of out of the eight weeks, what has been your absolute and I don't want to say favorite, but I would like to say I would like to ask which one would you want to do a deeper dive on, maybe sometime in the future?
Speaker 2:want to do a deeper dive on maybe sometime in the future. Well, the freshest one in my brain is obviously gratitude. I love that opening talk. God has more for you. I think you can take that and it can be its own series. God has more. God has more mercy. God has more healing. God has more grace. God has more of his word that he wants to teach you this year. He has more truth. I just think that can go in so many different directions.
Speaker 2:When you open your Bible. You should go. God has more for me today when you go to church. Man, I'm going to get something from God today. God has something for me today. I love that demeanor, that attitude. That's awesome. The whole series has been fun.
Speaker 1:It has been fun.
Speaker 2:I've loved it. Yeah, I've loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So last question Okay, how many people messaged you last week over our cranberry sauce discussion?
Speaker 2:A lot actually, I did too.
Speaker 1:I had a ton of people.
Speaker 2:I know that's crazy. If you missed last week's Rewind, Emily eats cranberry sauce with no berries, which is awful.
Speaker 1:Along with 90% of everybody who messaged me was like can't all the way.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, way to go, get in your echo chamber. I'm just saying. And then 90% of the people that texted me were like what is she thinking? She's crazy.
Speaker 1:See look at that there's no reason for them to kiss up to me. Listen, people affirm what they know, right.
Speaker 2:I actually had somebody. This is interesting. I had somebody today said Pastor, would you eat homemade cranberry sauce if I made it for you? And then she said and it'll have berries in it? I said, absolutely. So yeah, I did have quite a bit of feedback on that. That's funny. I had a ton.
Speaker 1:I'm over here, like all of the things that we're trying to like, push you closer to Jesus and everything. Everybody's like cranberry sauce.
Speaker 2:So at Thanksgiving do you eat dressing or stuffing? Dressing, yeah, turkey or ham, both At Thanksgiving? Absolutely. See ham's a Christmas meat.
Speaker 1:See, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Ham's not at Thanksgiving, it's a Christmas. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Me and you. Just one whole podcast. Jacob Jacob is here and listening to this my brother's making gumbo at Thanksgiving. We're just doing. I'm like have turkey somewhere Thanksgiving turkey. Me and you are just going to hash out just all Thanksgiving foods, just a whole entire podcast.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm down with, though. I had last week somebody made like cheese balls with like. It's like a cream cheese based cheese ball. It's got like crushed pecans or walnuts on it, rolled up.
Speaker 1:They're little, they're like individual served cheese balls.
Speaker 2:No, they had cranberries like craisins mashed into it. Oh my goodness, they were so good it was amazing.
Speaker 1:It was just because you said that you like cranberries. That's right, I get texts and you get treats.
Speaker 2:I see how our congregation treats us. It was on a food tray there at the event.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again, and it's been a fun journey. It's been a fun journey.
Speaker 2:You've done a good job, host.
Speaker 1:Hey, shake and bake. Is that what we do now? I don't know. No, we're just going to be awkward and go now. But thank you guys, we love you guys. See you next week, maybe I don't.
