Thoughts Of Some Guy In Ohio
Thoughts Of Some Guy In Ohio
Embracing Gratitude: Transforming Lives with Thankfulness and Faith
Imagine seeing everyday stressors as opportunities to reflect Jesus' teachings and spread gratitude. That's precisely what we'll explore as we consider the profound nature of thankfulness and appreciation in our daily lives. Through personal anecdotes and experiences, Coty shares insights into how embodying gratitude, even in high-pressure environments, can transform our interactions and communities. The concept of "tagging" others with gratitude becomes a playful yet impactful way to foster positivity and appreciation, challenging us to look beyond conventional interpretations of gratitude.
Understanding our place within the kingdom of God offers a fresh perspective on gratitude, allowing us to face life's challenges with a mindset of learning and teaching. A chance meeting with a Vietnam War veteran and other heartwarming stories illustrate the importance of living gratefully, not just during special dates on the calendar. We ponder how the Holy Spirit guides us, especially in moments when words fail, reminding us to cherish our freedoms and blessings daily, aligning our lives with a Kingdom mindset.
We also reflect on the timeless teachings found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28, realizing the power of prayer and gratitude in maintaining a strong connection with God. Through the wisdom of a renowned preacher and personal reflections, we delve into Paul's ability to find thankfulness amid adversity, urging us to recognize God's presence in all circumstances. As we navigate our daily lives, the episode encourages embracing divine alignment and synchronicity, emphasizing the power of daily renewal through communal worship and an open heart to God's plan.
And so I'll do my best to stay put. We, of course, have arrived at that time of year where we think about Thanksgiving, and so we're working on the theme of being thankful, and it makes me wonder, you know, what do those words mean to you? Okay, what does it mean to express thankfulness? What does it mean to have appreciation? What does it mean to show gratitude? And I love that song that we did Gratitude this song set was put together specifically to crystallize the moment.
Speaker 1:We wanted to be thankful, we wanted to show our appreciation, we wanted to show gratitude to God, who has so richly blessed us in every way possible, and I think that a lot of times and I said this once when I got to speak with you the last time in our Christian lives for us to really be successful in understanding God's word and sharing with other people and reaching other people in God's name, we have to redefine terms that we sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret by the way the world uses them, and this would be another situation of that, I think. Sometimes thankfulness, appreciation and gratitude, as seen through the eyes of men, fall a little bit short, as seen through the lens of christ, the one who saved us with his blood. When seen through the eyes of god, the one who gave his son to be a sacrifice, when seen through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, which is in dwelling us since the point of our baptism, these words have a deeper meaning and a greater understanding. And so thankfulness might simply be to feel or express gratitude, feel appreciation. Appreciation would be to express some kind of thankful recognition or feeling, an expression of gratitude. Gratitude, as defined, would be the quality of being or feeling grateful and thankful. Now you'll notice that, as I am reading you the definitions of those words, each of those words are used to define what the other word is okay, which means that the central theme of thankfulness is to have appreciation for what God has given us in every situation, and that means that that's how we have to teach ourselves to view the world.
Speaker 1:We can sometimes be frustrated by the situations that we live in, whether it's in our home, in our workplace, in our community. We can look at this world and think that it's so bad. How are we supposed to be thankful for that? But I urge you to be thankful for the opportunity you have to be Jesus in those situations. You can be Jesus to other people. You can be a miracle for other people if you change your mindset and are always thankful for the opportunities God's giving you.
Speaker 1:Because I've worked in a job for the last almost 30 years now. That is highly stressful. It can bring out the worst in you if you let it. I've done it. I've let it happen to me in public meetings. I've let it bring out the worst in me. But it also provides me with a lot of opportunity to reach people I would otherwise never reach for Jesus. It also gives me a platform to be in front of people and remind them that we only have what we have because god has blessed us richly.
Speaker 1:So when you think about, I've put these three words together thankfulness, appreciation and gratitude and I've formed a word. That word is tag. You guys think about. You played tag when you were kids and you tag somebody. They're it right. You think about the way it's used in social media. You got the hashtag thing going on, so I want you to tag somebody. Okay, spend your week this week, this Thanksgiving time, tagging people, thank them, show your appreciation, show them your gratitude, and then they can tag somebody else and by doing that we can all create a mindset that overtakes our world, which is really what we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:We talked for weeks about being on mission. Well, part of being on mission is not only loving other people and reaching people and making them into disciples, but it's being thankful for them and the opportunity to share with them and for what god has done for them, in some cases through you. So it's funny that, uh, in defining these words, you know daniel webster gets the task of defining these words right, and so somebody asked him one time how can you comprehend the incarnation of Christ? Okay, that's God incarnated as man. And he answered I can't. He said, if I could, I'd be equal with God and I wouldn't need a savior. So the guy who defines these terms found some things about the Bible to be completely undefinable Because they are, because they're over our head. We can't think on the same level as God, but we can act with the same love that God has shown us through His Son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Daniel Webster went on to say in that same conversation a God who is small enough for our minds to comprehend is not big enough to handle our problems, and I find that to be true. We try to put God in a box all the time, in fact, we try to put Him in a box that we can hide when we don't want to show people that we're godly, and then we take him out whenever we want to show people that we're good people, and that's really a negative example of what we should be right, I got to look over this way because Rick did tell me he was going to keep me on track or throw me off track. So, whichever one, I'm just looking to make sure. I'm just looking to give me some eye contact and it is a strange room to preach in, by the way, because this doesn't really work that good. But we need a revolving stage. I've talked about that before, but we've got to see if that's in the plan. But before we go any further, let's have a word of prayer, our Heavenly Fathers. We got to see if that's in the plan, but uh, but before we go any further, let's have a word of prayer.
Speaker 1:Our heavenly fathers, come to you in prayer this day. We thank you for the opportunity to be here in your house and to learn from your word. We, we thank you, lord, for this message you have given us through your word, the only message you have ever given to your believers and we pray that you'll be with us, lord, and help us to be in it every day, seeing what it is that you have for us to make our lives better as individuals and as Christian servants. And I pray, lord, that you'll be with us and help us to double down on our commitment every day, every day, looking to be better than we were the day before. In the name of Christ, so that we can reach others. In your name, I pray that you'll be with the many who are in need of prayer, both spoken and unspoken. Lord, meet their needs as you see fit. Be with Jason and his family as they travel back, get them back safely, and be with each of us as we endeavor to do your will, lord, and grant us the love, knowledge, strength, compassion, understanding, humility, courage and patience that it takes to show Jesus to the world, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:When we realized our plan fell apart and who we wanted to have come in to preach today wasn't going to work, we started working through that process and, of course, I said, hey, we just ordained Jesse. I mean, this is a great opportunity for him. That should be easy to understand, right. We want to be like Jesus, we want to share Jesus with everybody we come in contact with. That should be simple. The kingdom concept is a little bit harder because the kingdom concept is putting yourself to the side so that the kingdom of God can really receive the blessing. And a lot of times we limit what God can do, not only through our church or in our community but in our world, because we don't think like kingdom people See that first group of apostles and of course Paul was added later that first group of apostles understood kingdom mindset. They were kingdom thinkers. God told them go into the world, make disciples. So that's exactly what they went to do. We can be told something 15 times and we never go do it. We can find every excuse in the book for not doing it. So we have to become kingdom thinkers.
Speaker 1:I think that's one of the most important parts of being thankful is understanding your place in the kingdom of God. Because if you don't understand your place in the kingdom of God you can throw yourself a pity party every time something goes bad for you. But if you understand your place in the kingdom of God, then you realize he's got something for you. It might be the worst imaginable experience you can be going through, but God's got something one that he's going to teach you through it, and two, that he's going to show other people through how you handle your situation. So that's where thankfulness really comes from. So we have to change our mindset.
Speaker 1:It's like there's these two guys walking through a field out on this farm and pretty soon they see this raging bull coming at them and they're like, oh, oh man. So the one says the other, I think we better run the other way. So they start booking the other way and they're losing ground the whole time. And the one finally says to the other hi, I think we better pray, because there's no way we can survive this. And the and the one guy says I don't know any prayers, I don't pray because I'm not a praying man either. What do you got? He says I'll say the only prayer that I ever knew that my dad taught me at the dinner table lord for what we are about to receive. Let us be truly thankful.
Speaker 1:Wrong thinking right, wrong thinking, wrong idea, wrong message to share with God about what they were going through. We do this all the time. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit which indwells us, intercedes for us when we don't know what we ought to pray for. That's from Romans, chapter 8. That's not the focus of our message this morning, but I want you to remember that, even whenever you can't find the words to pray the prayers you ought to be praying, the Holy Spirit's going to help you pray the prayers you ought to be praying. So when your sense of gratitude and thankfulness isn't always to the forefront, the Holy Spirit's going to help to refocus you so that it brings it to the forefront.
Speaker 1:I find it kind of interesting that we think about certain themes and feelings and emotions at only certain times of year. Right, when the calendar tells us this is how we should feel. Okay, so we think about christmas and god's love sending his son to to be our savior at christmas time. Right, because the calendar says you should think about this now. Okay, so it's like Thanksgiving time, we should be thankful. Because the calendar says we ought to be thankful now. Okay. Well, I mean, they've invented a national something day for every day of the year, it seems. I think there's a bunch of them you can do. I was thinking about this when National Daughters Day came around, because I said, oh, national Daughters Day. I didn't know it was a thing and I didn't know it was the day, but the lock screen of my phone is a beautiful picture of my daughters. I don't know if you can see that or not. Okay, it's National Daughter Day for me every day. Okay, and it's just like you should be thankful when. Thanksgiving should be every day of your life. Christmas should be every day of your life. God has given our country, has given us these days or in some cases, hallmark, I guess, gives us these days when we celebrate certain things, but God has given you something to be thankful for every day of your life. I I actually learned this lesson.
Speaker 1:I had an encounter with a vietnam war veteran about 20 years ago I think. It was and and uh, it was a good conversation, it was a good experience. He obviously was still haunted and and moved and very emotional by what he experienced in his wartime and he was even more distressed about the fact that when he came back to America, he was treated like a pariah. He was treated like he was part of the problem and not part of the solution, and he couldn't understand how America could be so ungrateful. I mean, after all, he's going to fight for democracy in another country so that it doesn't take over what's pure and perfect, hopefully, here in the us right freedom. And I he was still emotional at that point. I mean this, you know, had been 30 years or 40 years since, since he'd been there.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, it taught me something. I was like this guy, this guy needs to feel some gratitude. And I said, well, even though it's not veterans day, I shook his hand. I said thank you for your service. It means a lot to me and it should mean a lot to every American he goes. Are you living in a free America today? And I said, yeah, he goes.
Speaker 1:Then every day should be Veterans Day. He's right, every day should be Veterans Day. We gather here without the fear of reprisal because somebody fought for that right and died for it in some cases. So shouldn't every day be about living for Jesus? That's the lesson. So now, every time I have the opportunity, I thank veterans. In season, out of season, I don't care. I just thank them. And you would not believe you should try it. You would not believe how it makes their day. You would not believe how much gratitude they feel from just a simple handshake and a thank you for your service. Simple words, they're really easy, and so I try to do that all the time now when I have the opportunity.
Speaker 1:But that taught me about how to be thankful, not just for for servicemen who have given their the best years of their lives in some cases for the freedoms that we enjoy, but how we should find a way to be thankful every day for the things that we experience. And there's always somebody to thank. I used to tell young kids when I was working with them thank somebody, start with God, and thank somebody, because everybody's doing something. Somebody in this room has done something for you. You may not even know about um. I'm sure people this morning have prayed that that the praise program would go well, that the message would be received, that people here would find jesus the way they need to right. You don't even know they're praying for that, but they're praying for that, so be thankful, have some gratitude for that.
Speaker 1:We're going to get into our scripture here. It's 1 Thessalonians 5. And those of you who have been around me for a little bit of time know that I call this nutshell Christianity 1 Thessalonians 5. And we're going to look in there from the 16th verse and we're going to focus on just a portion of that, but we're going to read all the way through the end. So the 16th verse in 1 Thessalonians 5, all the way through the end.
Speaker 1:And I'm reading from a New King James here, so it might sound a little bit different than what you have in front of you. It says in the 16th verse rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every appearance of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful and will also do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the body and brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. Now I read all the way to the end because that last part there, the 27th verse. I charge you that this epistle is read in the entire body of the holy brethren. That's what we're doing today.
Speaker 1:I mean, I would assume, since Paul was being divinely inspired to write this, that he probably did envision this would be happening right here, right now, today. But I would have a hard time writing something that I thought somebody would be reading 2 000 years later. That's amazing, and it speaks to the fact that the bible is still alive for each and every one of us as long as we continue to read it and put it into our heart, mind and soul. And he also says later on there that God, the God who has called you, is faithful and he will complete it. I think a lot of times we get ourselves into trouble, we get ourselves into bad situations and we instantly think God has left me, god's left me alone. I can't do this by myself. That's not true. The truth of the matter is if you feel like God has left me, god's left me alone. I can't do this by myself. That's not true. The truth of the matter is, if you feel like God has left you, it's because you've left Him.
Speaker 1:There's an old preacher named Ben Merrill that I saw a lot of times doing revivals. He really actually was pretty legendary in the restoration movement and he said to me one time he who runs from Jesus in the morning scarcely finds Him the rest of the day, and I found that to be true in my own life. So I try to train myself to have prayer and do some reading in the morning, because I want to find Jesus in the morning so I can continue to find Him the rest of the day. He's on this journey with me all the time, whether I realize it or not, but if I don't include Him in what I'm doing, how can he really be a guiding force for me? So one of the things that we have to do if we're going to truly be thankful is adjust our mindset so that we realize we're not in the battle alone. God has not only given us christ, his son, but he's given us the indwelling holy spirit to make sure that we're never on our own in any task he has asked us to complete. So we're talking. Be a kingdom thinker, remember what your place is, right, okay, and know that you're never alone.
Speaker 1:So, focusing back on this nutshell, christianity part, these little short these are just little short phrases Rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you Now. Those three short phrases were written by a man who'd been shipwrecked multiple times, beaten multiple times, stoned multiple times, imprisoned multiple times. You see the theme when paul was writing to you and and I think I think in the niv it's probably said something like in everything, or in every circumstance, give thanks. So your circumstances shouldn't dictate how you feel, your circumstances shouldn't dictate how you view the way god's blessing in your life and certainly paul didn't feel that way. This guy that had experienced every bad thing you could experience was writing in every circumstance, give thanks.
Speaker 1:This is, this is a guy, paul, who goes to prison and says hey, I got all this time. I think I'll write some epistles, I think I'll work. He converted guards okay. He was finding an audience for his message everywhere. He was Okay. He wasn't up at the door begging to be let out. He was praising God. Not only praising God for what God had done for him, despite the fact that his circumstances didn't seem to dictate that, but praising God for the fact that he knew he was always going to take care of him and that his help was always going to come from him. And because he knew, ultimately, that God was going to take care of him and that gave him the faith to believe that god wouldn't give him anything more than he could handle. He wrote in first corinthians, chapter 10, 13 god will never give you more than you can handle. With every temptation, he'll provide a means of escape. So so paul, this guy that probably should have had every right to be negative in some of his work, turns out to be one of the most positive writers in all of the Bible. You know why? Because his mindset didn't overrule the status of his spirit, which was tied to Christ, and he knew what he was here for and he knew that God would take care of him. I think that one of the other parts of being thankful is understanding that you're supposed to be giving thanks in every circumstance. So we have to remember that, no matter what situation we're in, we're probably in that situation for a reason and that God's going to make the most of that situation for us and for His kingdom.
Speaker 1:I work in a job that, by and large, is just frustration. By and large, I labor in obscurity. Most people don't know who I am unless they see me on the TV a lot of times during this period of the year. But I have a job that doesn't always bring out the best in me, but that circumstance doesn't dictate who I am in Christ. In fact, I've had people tell me it's funny because you guys had ICOM. Some of y'all went to ICOM here last week and those ICOM conventions are great.
Speaker 1:Because here's what happens you walk in and you say, oh, this is all the mission work that's going on all around the world and you instantly think to yourself, man, I've got to get a life and bag my job. And I've got to get a life and bag my job and I've got to get out there and do something serious for God. Right, and maybe that's the case. That's a great thing. That happens. You get to see all that happening. But you know, the one negative thing about events like that is they take your focus away from sometimes the fact that you have a mission field right here in front of you. If God is calling you to be a missionary somewhere, he'll get you there, he'll find a way to make that happen for you. But he's got a mission for you right here.
Speaker 1:And I tell people all the time they say, well, you're not in a full-time ministry. Yeah, I am. I'm telling you right now I'm in full-time ministry. I have a full-time job. It's a secular job and you know what it does. It finances my ability to be a full-time minister. So, yeah, I guess I do, in a matter of speaking, have two full-time jobs. One is serving the city of Weirton, in Parks and Recreation, and the other is serving God all the time, in every situation, wherever I'm at, which includes meetings at the city building, okay, or events like we had yesterday, christmas on main street and we appreciate your prayers, by the way. It turned out great. So you have a full-time ministry as well.
Speaker 1:So don't get caught up in the fact that you're not overseas in a mission, or you're, or you haven't found a way to fund, uh, or to make it work money-wise for you to be in a full-time mission field. You have a mission. God has a job for you, specific to where you are right now. If he could use paul in prison, he can use you in a job, even if you hate it. If, if he had, if he could use paul in prison, then he can use Paul in prison. Then he can use you in a family, even if it's dysfunctional. There's no situation where God can't use you in your best effort.
Speaker 1:The only thing that limits God's power is you and the way you feel about it, because God's already told you he can get it done. In fact, we're reminded right here. I mean, if you needed more proof, philippians 4.13 says what Everybody knows that, right, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. Right, but he reminds us right here at the end the God who has called you is faithful. He will complete it. You're not out there alone. You've been given all the tools that you need. This is your toolbox. You ought to unpack it once in a while, because this is worth nothing if it just lays on the table or the shelf. It's when you open it up that it becomes a living document that saves lives.
Speaker 1:I've found in my life, and this is why, and this is why I can say I have a full-time ministry and I and I work it all the time. Okay, um, and and, and. One of the reasons that I can say that is that I know, through whatever circumstance I'm in at my job or in my family or whatever the case may be through the church, obviously God is going to provide. Whatever the next mission is he's going to take. It isn't like Mission Impossible, where you get the thing and you look at it and go, oh, this message will self-destruct in three seconds. No, it isn't like that.
Speaker 1:Your mission is clear. Your mission is to be God's best person everywhere you go, and for you to truly tap in to the heart of service that allows you to be truly thankful in every situation and circumstance. You have to be willing to give all of yourself to Jesus, and that does mean again changing your mindset. So I want to wrap up, and we might be done a little bit early. That's okay, because I think I held you over the last time, so I'm giving it back to you. See, I'm a good guy.
Speaker 1:I just want to wrap up by encouraging you to encourage others by being thankful for them, their presence in your life, being thankful for your church, being thankful for the God who has saved you, the God who has given you the opportunity to reach other people in his name. You will never know what a blessing you can be to people until you start to work for him, and I think that when you start to live your life seeking to do God's will every day, it's going to create a unique collaborative experience with your Creator, where you and God are on the same page all the time. He'll be guiding you, he'll be leading you. Matthew 10 tells us that whatever God needs you to say, he's going to put it in your heart and in your head so that you can say it. He's going to give you the message. I think it, I think it, uh, I think it gets confusing sometimes for people because a lot of times people think, well the well, the preacher, uh, whoever's given the message. You know, he, he writes a message, whatever he thinks it ought to be, and he just spits it out there. That that is not how this works. This is a. This is a collaborative experience, a collaborative experience with god, where we're trying to reach you with the message that god needs you to hear. And if you don't believe me, I'll give you this.
Speaker 1:I, some of the sermon, some of the sermon prayer team, we, we have a sermon prayer team and I sent out a text to them with what the idea would be of the message today and praying for the message, what the scripture would be. And the second I sent it out, jason calls me and goes did I send you what I was doing? And I said no, he goes. You sure I didn't send you what I was doing. I said, yeah, you didn't send me what you were doing I was doing. I said, yeah, you didn't send me what you were doing. He goes well, you're in the scripture that I was going to use. He said 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, 16 to 18. That's where I was going.
Speaker 1:He said if I'd have been there on Sunday, that's what I was going to be preaching. I said, well, I didn't know it, but God did and that's why he led me to that. I find that amazing. I mean amazing in a way, but in another way I'm like God is so great that that doesn't amaze me. It really is exactly what was expected, right? So I would encourage you to get up every day and think about what God can use you for that just that day See.
Speaker 1:Because if you start thinking about a lifetime, you know it's kind of like when you get a job, when you're right out of college or right out of high school, and you're thinking, oh, I've got to work for 40 years. If you look at it like that, every day is terrible. But if you look at it like this is what I'm going to do for now, you know, you kind of peck away at it for a while and pretty soon you've been there for 20 years and you're like, oh, okay, I only got 20 more to go, right, well, in this world it might be I might have to work on about 75. I hope not. But, um, but don't look at, don't try to look at the whole vast expanse of your life. Deal with today.
Speaker 1:Okay, what good things happen today. You got up and you found yourself in the house of lord. Okay, that's a great thing, okay, so it's going to start you on the right path, not only for today, but for this week. You come around the lord's table, you partake of the lord's supper, and that that re-energizes you so that you can be ready to do the work that god's going to call you to. That's just two things today that I'm thankful for, just because we happen to be here in the same place. View every day like that. Get up every day and see what God has new for you to do and be thankful that he has given you an opportunity to have breath in your lungs so that you can share Jesus with other people. And don't forget to tag people, thank them, appreciate them, show them gratitude, and start with God. Let's pray.