Good morning, church. Happy Thanksgiving week. How's everybody? Wonderful. Like I said earlier, I missed y'all last Sunday. I watched online as I was driving out to Abilene. I did get to stick around and teach my starting point course last Sunday. It was our second to last one. And we had a good time and then I had to hit the road to make it out. I had an early meeting out there. So thank you for putting up with Jared for a week. I know it was
rough. That was a joke. Y'all relax. He did a great job. I really thought he did. So thank you to Jared for filling in and covering the end of Colossians 2. Listen, I'm a little bit sad today. We're finishing our Colossians series today. We're going to start a Christmas series next Sunday. Can you believe it's Christmas already? Here we are. But wait, we're not there yet. It's Thanksgiving week. All right. We got to think about the week of gratitude.
Gratitude. So just in advance, how many of you have at least a Facebook account? Maybe you have other social media, but you've at least got a Facebook account. How many of you have, you don't have Facebook, but you got something else? Instagram or what they're calling X, but we all know it's Twitter. Something like that. Yeah. I think Facebook is kind of the primary one in this congregation. That's all right.
All right. Be prepared for all the gratitude posts this week. Everybody's going to start throwing thank you posts on Facebook because it's the week of gratitude. There's nothing wrong with that. Amid our turkey comas and football naps, we will be also saying thank you online.
You might get some thank you texts. Anybody ever get a thank you text on Thanksgiving? Anybody ever send those?
No? Y'all a bunch of ungrateful people, man. I'm kidding. Listen, it's all right to do those things, but saying thank you and being thankful are sometimes two different things.
So let's talk about that today. Listen, the Lord put the book of Colossians on my heart many months ago.
I try to keep my sermons planned out a few months ahead so we kind of know where we're going.
And it just so lined up that the last Sunday of Colossians, we would be covering Colossians chapter four,
and he kicks this thing off by talking about thankfulness. So the Lord worked all that out with the calendar.
So let's dive into Colossians chapter four. While you're turning there, anyone can feel grateful when life is going great.
That is the easiest time to feel appreciative and want to say thank you.
But what about when work is stressful?
Jerry did a great job talking about work last Sunday.
What about when your job is a problem?
What about when your bank account is shrinking?
What about when things around the family or the house are tense, to put it lightly?
Gratitude is not proven in a thank you card or a post on Facebook.
Gratitude is proven under pressure.
So let's look at Colossians chapter four.
Remember, Paul is writing these words from prison.
He's under house arrest in Rome.
There are guards at the door. He can't leave.
If they had tracking anklets, maybe they would have let him wear that back then.
But he was under house arrest.
Life was not at its peak for Paul.
And he writes in Colossians chapter four about gratitude.
So let's dive in.
While we're in Thanksgiving season, we all want to take time to be thankful.
But what does a thankful heart actually look like?
I think we would all admit saying thank you and being thankful are two different things.
But let's see what Paul has to say about Colossians chapter four and verse two.
We're going to pick it up in verse two.
I believe Jared left off in verse one last Sunday.
Has anybody ever noticed that sometimes the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible are different?
Most of the time they're fine.
But then sometimes it's like, why didn't he include the first verse of Colossians four at the end of Colossians three?
Because it's kind of wrapping up that thought process.
So I appreciate Jared for jumping ahead and diving into chapter four and verse one.
We're going to pick it up in verse two.
So here we go.
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a what?
There you go.
Thankful heart or your Bible might say Thanksgiving.
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Pray for us too that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ Jesus.
Verse four.
Pray that I will proclaim this message clearly as I should.
Verse five.
Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity.
Verse six.
Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.
If you'll notice as we've gone through this letter, we call it a book in the Bible, but it was when it was written, it was a letter.
It was a letter from Paul, the father of many churches in those early years of the church age.
And Paul had never even visited this conversation, this congregation, this church.
But a follower of Paul's had gone and started this church.
And he came to Paul while he's trapped in Rome under house arrest.
He said, can you help our church?
Can you write us a letter with instructions for our church?
So it's been preserved down through history for us to still draw from today.
We understand that Paul was writing this as he was guided by the Holy Spirit of God what to say to this church.
So this is the conclusion.
We haven't covered every verse in Colossians.
We're not going to cover every verse today in chapter four.
We don't have time.
If we blocked off maybe three hours for the sermon every Sunday, we might get close.
But it's hard to do that.
I don't think I could pay attention to me for three hours.
So don't worry, we're not going to go that long today.
But we've learned much from Paul's letter to this church in this place called Colossae.
Week one, we looked at Christ over the cosmos.
The whole ordered universe as God created it.
And we learned that he holds it all together.
So let me jump ahead.
By the way, this is a sneak peek into our sermon today.
Gratitude is a decision, not an emotion.
If you want to write that down, write that down.
We're going to talk about it more in a little bit.
But we've been studying this series through Colossians, Christ over all.
How many of you would say, I believe Christ is over all?
Would you raise your hand and testify to that?
Yeah, I think just about everybody in here would agree with that.
But when we break it down, we start to say what he's actually over.
So first off, we said he's over the cosmos.
He's over everything he created.
And Colossians 1.17 teaches us, in him, in Jesus, all things hold together.
Week two, we looked at Colossians chapter two.
And we said Christ is over us.
So our roots must grow down into him.
That is how we understand this new identity he's given us.
He's actually changed our very identity as people.
He said, you're no longer members of this sinful race.
Now I've brought you into my family as my children.
He's changed our identity.
We can grow from him and let our roots grow down into him.
Week three, we talked about how Christ is over religion.
Christ is over religion.
We can be rooted in Christ.
Christ is over religion.
But we need to put on a new nature.
A new nature.
Not the old way.
Jesus came to actually put a stop to the old way, which was obeying the law to be made right with God.
That could never work.
You can't obey all the laws that God gave you.
You'll never get it all right.
You can try as hard as you can, but you'll never get there.
And so religion tells you, you've got to follow these rules.
You've got to follow these laws.
You've got to do it how we say.
Jesus says, I came to put a stop to that.
I'm making you new.
I'm going to give you a new nature.
You can grow with me as I teach you and change you.
Not you doing it.
It's me doing it.
And then last Sunday, Jared talked about, hold on a minute.
Did we get out of line?
There we go.
Yes, last Sunday, Jared talked about work.
And Colossians 3.23 advised us, Colossians 3.23, work for the Lord, not for men.
That's a wonderful principle.
Sometimes this time of year gets crazy at work, depending on the line of work you might be in.
Sometimes it's more stressful.
They know a break is coming, a holiday break for some of you.
And so you've got to press hard and finish strong.
We've got to get everything done before Christmas comes, et cetera.
And so work can get very stressful.
The Bible says we're not working for them.
We're not even working for ourselves.
Yeah, you've got to pay your bills.
Yeah, you've got to keep your job and all those things.
But we're working to please the one who gave us the ability to work.
We're working to please the one who gave us the family to provide for.
We're working to please the one whose breath we're breathing, whose air is providing us oxygen.
So Christ is over our performance.
Whatever you're doing, whatever your hand finds to do, do it for the Lord, not for people.
So now we pick it up.
And we're saying Christ is over our hearts.
Colossians chapter 4, verses 2 through 6.
And we're going to have to stop there because that's all the time we have.
If you want to continue on and study out the remainder of this chapter, I encourage you to do that as we close out this letter from Paul.
But today, from these verses, I hope that we can testify together at the end of this time, Christ is over our hearts.
He's captured our hearts.
That's what he's after.
That's what he wants.
He wants our hearts.
Because what we do from the heart truly changes us.
Who we are in our hearts is our true identity.
So Christ wants to rule over our hearts.
And I promise you, they're safer with him than they are even with ourselves.
They're safer with him than they are with anyone else.
When Christ rules your hearts, gratitude becomes not just what you do, but who you are.
Gratitude becomes not just what you say, but who you actually are when Christ rules over your hearts.
So we're going to talk about gratitude.
We're going to talk about thankfulness.
And we're going to talk about God changing our hearts from the inside out.
We're not just saying be a thankful.
We're not just saying say thank you.
We're saying be a thankful person.
We're not just saying be grateful when you're blessed.
We're saying be grateful even when the blessings seem less obvious.
So let's look at number one.
A thankful heart seeks God.
If you're filling this out in the bulletin, we've got these blanks in there.
You can write down seeks.
A thankful heart seeks God.
What do we mean by that?
Colossians 4 or 2 says it again.
But I want to read this from the Amplified Bible.
By the way, on the Bible app, if you download it from the App Store, I think it's called YouVersion.
It comes out of Life Church in Oklahoma.
They publish this thing.
And they have every possible imaginable version of the Bible that's ever been printed and published.
So some of them are maybe better than others and more accurate than others.
Some of them have different styles.
But I like every once in a while I like to go to this Amplified Bible because it really fleshes out the meaning of it, puts it in language.
It's easy to understand.
And so let's look again at chapter 4 and verse 2, Colossians, in the Amplified Bible.
Be persistent and devoted to prayer.
Being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.
I think that's a pretty accurate way to expand on what Paul was teaching to this church in Colossae.
Let's look at it again.
Be persistent in your prayer.
Be devoted to your prayer.
Do you think he's saying make it a big deal in your life?
Make it a big part of your life?
You think he's promoting prayer here?
Saying, guys, prayer is important.
It's essential.
Be persistent at it.
Have you ever felt like you were praying and it wasn't getting anywhere?
It was like bouncing on the ceiling and not going any higher?
Sometimes you feel like, God, are you even hearing me right now?
Paul says, be persistent.
There's a song that I heard that said, when you don't feel like praying, you know what you should do?
Let's say it a little louder.
When you don't feel like praying, pray.
That's being persistent in prayer.
Why?
Because that is an act of faith.
If Jesus was sitting in the room saying, tell me everything that's on your mind, then it's easy for us to talk, right?
We'll unload, man.
Jesus, you finally showed up in person.
Been waiting my whole life for this moment.
Let me tell you a few things about what's going on in my life.
But he's not.
But he's with us all the time through his spirit.
And so he says, if you pray, when you pray, that shows your faith.
I think if we took a poll and said, how many of you in the room are people of faith?
We'd probably get pretty close to 100%.
Yes, I'm a person of faith.
But we can actually put that faith into action and show to our own hearts that we are people of faith when we pray and we're persistent at it.
You can't take prayer out of my life.
I'm going to be persistent at it.
I may not be awesome at it.
I may not be an expert at it.
I might stumble over my words.
Sometimes I might not even know what to say.
And I'm just kind of sitting there awkwardly like, God, I don't know how to put this into words right now.
But there's just a lot going on in my life.
You know what I mean?
Felt that way?
Sometimes that's all you can pray.
And it's okay.
We've even got a verse in the Bible that says, when we don't know what words to say, the Holy Spirit provides the words for us to God.
Because he knows our hearts well.
Isn't that crazy?
God's like, don't worry, I got you.
I'll say the words that you can't figure out how to say right now.
That is being persistent in prayer.
When you can't come up with a fancy prayer that sounds good to impress other people.
It's not about those people anyway.
It's about you and the one who's listening and cares for you.
So be persistent in prayer.
Don't give up on it.
Be devoted to it.
It's so important to you.
That comes from the word devotion.
Anybody ever heard somebody say, do you have a morning devotions with God?
Do you have a devotional time with God?
That became kind of a buzzword in Christianity.
Do you, a time of devotions.
It means you're supposed to open your Bible or maybe you got a little book at Mardell's that's like a 365 devotions for every day of the year.
Something like that.
There's nothing wrong with those things.
I've got several of them in my office back there.
I don't know that I've ever, yeah, I think I have maybe once or twice gone through one of those where I did it every day of the year.
I finished, you know, a 365 day devotional in a year.
It's hard though.
I've started many of them and at some point I stopped along the way.
Am I the only one?
I see some heads nodding.
That makes me feel good.
It's hard.
We're about to have New Year's.
That's a whole other thing with resolutions and all that stuff.
I'm going to read the Bible every day this year.
There might be some days when you don't.
Might be some days you get busy.
But prayer is an act of devotion to God.
It says I'm devoted to you.
Kind of like I'm devoted to my spouse.
So things may not always be great between us.
But I'm going to still love her.
She's going to still love me.
It's the picture of marriage that God created.
Sin got in the way and sin can break that sometimes.
And it brings an unhappy ending to a union of a husband and a wife.
But in the marriage relationship, and it's described that way in the Bible,
the marriage relationship that Jesus wants to have with the church,
there's devotion there.
He's fully committed to us.
And he's asking us to be devoted to him in return.
Go to him in prayer.
He's always there.
He's always listening.
A thankful heart will seek God.
It'll seek him out in prayer every day.
Many times a day.
Even if it's a, God, I just can't right now.
God, help me with this one because I'm about to go off on him.
Even if that's what it is, pray in that moment.
And you'd be surprised how God might calm your spirit in that moment
before you do just unload on somebody.
However deserving they might be of that.
So be persistent.
Be devoted to prayer.
Be alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.
Alert and focused.
I love these words.
Be alert.
Be aware of moments to pray.
Be aware of moments when you need God actively right then.
I've got to turn to God right now.
You get some bad news.
Yep, got to pray.
You get some good news.
Got to pray.
Got to thank God.
Ask him for wisdom.
Help me not get sidetracked by what I think is this great thing.
Help me to remember he's in control of it all.
He gives.
He takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Be alert in prayer.
And be focused in your prayer life.
What are we focused on in our prayer life?
God, this truck has just got some miles on it now.
And they just came out with a new one.
The tailgate is way cooler than the one I have.
God, would you just pour out the blessings from heaven on me and just give me that new truck on Christmas morning?
Because, you know, I could bless so many people with giving them rides in this truck.
Look, I'm not saying that God doesn't sometimes give us a truck or God doesn't sometimes give us tangible blessings.
Of course he does sometimes.
But when we're focused in our prayer life, we're not worried about the truck.
Or the boat or the 401k or whatever it is that you could substitute there that you think will bring you happiness and security or fulfillment.
We're focused on God and his kingdom.
We're focused on God's will.
Saying, God, this world is broken.
My life can be very quickly broken and fall apart.
Apart from you.
The darkness is all around us.
Please shine your light.
In my life, my family's life, the lives of those around me.
Shine through me.
When our prayer lives are focused on his will and his kingdom, then God unloads blessings on us according to his will and his kingdom.
Sometimes he'll choose to upgrade your vehicle.
Sometimes he'll choose to give you a better job.
Sometimes he'll choose to restore a relationship that's broken.
Sometimes he'll choose things that bring us that momentary pleasure and we just say, thank you, God.
Thank you for that.
But it was never about those things.
It was about God putting him first, his will, and his kingdom first in my life.
I'm focusing my prayer on that.
So persistent, devoted, alert, and focused with an attitude of thanksgiving.
Why do we go to him in prayer?
Because he's come through so many times.
Why do we believe he loves us?
Because he sent his only son to die for our sins and take the penalty of the things that we've done wrong.
Why do we believe that he's good?
Because he's always been good.
Why do we believe he can actually come through?
Because he created everything.
He holds it all together.
So we're thankful to him that we get to approach him without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.
We don't have to go through a bunch of different ways to get to God and gain an audience with God.
We have an immediate audience with God anytime we want it.
That's why he calls us children.
And he's the father.
We're not just subjects of the king.
We're not just citizens under a president.
I don't know about you, but I don't have access to the White House anytime I want it.
I can't go to England and gain an audience with the queen or the prime minister.
I can't do that.
But I can go to the king of the universe anytime I want.
And so can you.
So we're thankful for that.
God, thank you for listening anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
Then Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33.
Seek the kingdom of God above all else.
And he will give you everything you need.
So don't worry about tomorrow.
Don't worry where it's all going to come from.
And I got to tell myself that because I get worried about tomorrow sometimes.
Both in my life and in the life of our church.
Church, where's it going to come from?
How's it going to all work out?
God, what are you going to do?
Don't worry about that.
Seek the kingdom of God above all else.
He will give you everything that you need.
So gratefulness doesn't come from getting everything you want.
I'm not going to ask who's filled out a Christmas list and who hasn't, okay?
But whether or not you have, whether or not Christmas brings everything you want or not,
that's not where gratefulness comes from.
It comes from giving God your attention.
Taking your attention off yourself.
Taking your attention off your problems.
Taking your attention off of the pleasures.
Taking your attention off of the priorities that you have and putting them on the Lord and his kingdom.
And then all these other things will be added to you.
Number two, a thankful heart sees opportunities.
A thankful heart seeks God.
A thankful heart sees opportunities.
What do we mean?
Let's look back at Colossians 4.
Paul says, pray for us that God will give us many opportunities.
And then later in verse 5 he says, live wisely and make the most of every opportunity.
Would you go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12?
I'm going to read from the New International Reader's Version.
It's kind of a slightly more accessible language version of the NIV.
NIV is maybe the most outside of the old King James Version, which has been around a long time.
The NIV is probably the most popular Bible out there.
This is the reader's version of that.
So 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 7.
For sake of time, I'm going to go ahead and read while you turn.
Paul's writing to a different church, church in Corinth.
But we got to tie this in to what he's teaching here.
Because even though he's chained to a guard in Rome under house arrest, he's not praying for an escape.
He's praying for open doors for God's work.
2 Corinthians 12 verse 7.
So I wouldn't become proud of myself, Paul writes.
I was given a problem.
This problem caused pain in my body.
Anybody ever had a problem that caused pain in your body?
Yeah.
I have too.
I know many of you have.
Some of you I visited in the hospital when you had problems that had pain in your body.
He said, it's a messenger from Satan to make me suffer.
What a way to put it, man.
Paul was like, I hate this thing.
Whatever it was, we don't know exactly what it was.
People have guessed what it might have been.
But Paul never really told us.
Clearly, it caused him physical pain.
Whatever this problem was.
He said, it's a messenger from Satan to make me suffer.
Verse 8.
Three times I begged the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, sure, Paul.
I got you, man.
I'll take this problem away.
I'll take all the problems out of your life.
You're just going to have a beautiful, happy Disney Channel life from now on.
Unfortunately, that's not what he said.
And he doesn't usually say that to us either.
He said, nope, Paul.
My grace is all you need.
My power is strongest when you are weak.
Your Bible might say, my grace is sufficient for you.
So Paul says, since God told me that, I'm very happy to brag about how weak I am.
That's what we brag about, right, guys?
Man, have you seen how much I can't bench press?
Have you seen how many arm wrestling matches I've lost?
I'm the weakest of them all.
Paul says, I'm very happy to brag about how weak I am.
Then Christ's power can rest on me.
Because of how I suffered for Christ, I'm glad that I'm weak.
Verse 10, I'm glad in hard times.
I'm glad when people say mean things about me.
Whew, that's a tough one.
I'm glad when things are difficult.
I'm glad when people make me suffer.
And he finishes this by saying, when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
When I'm weak, then I'm strong.
He sees an opportunity in suffering.
He sees an opportunity in weakness.
He sees an opportunity in hardship.
He sees an opportunity in opposition.
People are coming at him.
When people are mocking him.
When people are making fun of him.
When people are spreading false rumors about him.
When life seems to be programmed against him.
And trust me, you read the exploits of Paul.
Look through the book of Acts.
Life came up against that guy all the time.
And he said, I've learned something through all this.
I've asked God to take my hardships away.
But he won't.
And I realize now why.
Why?
Because it makes God look so much stronger.
When I'm able to continue.
When I'm able to survive.
When I'm able to come out the other side.
Still with the joy of the Lord.
When God doesn't let me be destroyed.
God holds me up.
And it draws people to the one.
The only one.
Who can hold them up too.
So most people pray.
God, get me out of this.
But grateful people pray.
God, get to me.
In the middle of this.
Y'all, this is a lesson I'm still learning.
Instead of asking God to get you out of something.
Whatever it is for you.
Can you instead ask God to get to you.
In the middle of that.
God, get to me.
In this suffering I'm going through.
Get to me in this depression.
Get to me in this despair.
Change me.
In ways that the good times.
Be a whole lot harder for you to get to me.
Number three.
A thankful heart.
Speaks grace.
A thankful heart seeks God.
A thankful heart sees opportunities.
And a thankful heart speaks grace.
Back in Colossians 4.
Let your conversation be gracious.
Gracious.
Whatever rules your heart.
Rules your mouth.
Dictates what you say.
If bitterness rules your heart.
Complaints will flow out of it.
If anxiety rules your heart.
Negativity will flow out of it.
If Christ rules your heart.
Grace will flow out of your mouth.
James chapter 3.
Talks about this quite a bit.
The book of James.
And it says can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring.
Y'all like spring water?
Anybody like drinking spring water?
Has anybody ever had fresh spring water like from a spring?
Like way up in the mountains?
You got to be careful because you don't know if there's some dead animal further upstream.
And you're drinking poison water.
You know what I'm saying?
But you ever had some real just good clean fresh water straight from nature?
I know all the bottled water companies say that's where theirs come from.
I wonder sometimes if they're really out there dipping their bottles and then putting them in Costco or Sam's Club.
Anyway.
But James paints this picture when he says can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
Go with me one last place.
Would you?
Exodus.
We're going all the way back to the second book of the Bible.
Genesis.
Exodus.
Exodus chapter 16 verse 1.
I don't have it on the screen.
You might actually have to turn there.
You ready?
While you're turning I'm going to read.
By the time you catch up.
Hopefully I won't be done.
But we'll see.
Exodus 16 verse 1.
Then the whole community of Israel.
Okay.
So you got the picture.
We got the children of Israel.
Set out from Elam and journeyed into the wilderness of sin.
Did you hear that?
The wilderness of sin.
Little side note.
Be careful what happens in the wilderness of sin.
Okay.
Now this is not the sin that you're thinking of.
This is a name that came from Mount Sinai.
Totally different kind of deal.
But I'm just going to use it as a moment to say.
Be careful what happens in the wilderness of sin.
When you're off lost in the desert of sin.
Don't ruin your life there.
Let God bring you back out of that.
Okay.
So the children of Israel is in the wilderness of sin.
Between Elam and Mount Sinai.
They arrived there on the 15th day.
The second month.
One month after leaving the land of Egypt.
Remember how they left the land of Egypt?
God parted the Red Sea.
Crazy things happened.
And miracles that have never happened again since.
I mean wow.
What God did to get them out of Egypt.
They should be riding high.
Can you believe God did that for us?
A month ago.
And that high would last years for me.
Right?
Seeing what God just did.
Verse 2.
There too.
The whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
So a month after the Red Sea.
God's people are complaining.
If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt.
They moaned.
There we sat around pots filled with meat.
And ate all the bread we wanted.
They were slaves in Egypt.
Ate all the bread they wanted.
They ate all the bread that their masters would allow them to have.
They were slaves.
And they were not treated well.
Moses and Aaron.
You brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.
So then God starts talking to Moses.
And he says look.
I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you.
Each day the people can go out.
And they can pick up as much food as they need for that day.
I'm going to test them in this.
To see whether or not they'll follow my instructions.
On the sixth day they'll gather the food.
When they prepare it.
They'll be twice as much as usual.
So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel.
By evening you'll realize that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Don't forget that.
In the morning you'll see the glory of the Lord.
Because he's heard your complaints.
Which are actually by the way against him.
Not us.
Not against us.
What have we done that you should complain about us?
God did this.
He got us out of Egypt.
He's the one who's been leading us through this wilderness.
When you complain it's not against us.
It's against God.
By the way remember that?
When you're complaining about your life.
It's not against whoever you're complaining about.
It's against God.
You're saying God I'm not content with the situation you put me in.
So I think I'm mad at Joe Blow over there.
But I'm actually mad at the God who's controlling it all.
Just remind yourself of that.
Moses and Aaron are reminding the people of this.
Verse 8.
Then Moses added.
The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening.
And bread to satisfy you in the morning.
For he's heard all your complaints against him.
What have we done?
Your complaints are against the Lord.
Not us.
Now we can go on and we can read the rest of that passage.
And it's fascinating to track the children of Israel as they're wandering through the desert.
They did go and they did take too much.
They didn't obey God's instructions.
And some of the people got real sick.
Some of them even died as a result of not obeying God's instructions.
Why?
Because they were griping.
Because they were complaining.
Because even after seeing God through.
Come through in such a powerful visible way.
Parting the Red Sea.
Killing all their enemies behind them.
Rescuing them from oppression.
Instantly they turned on him.
Said nope.
What have you done for us lately?
I'm not happy with the food we have to eat.
We had way better food back in Egypt.
You can't speak grace if you're griping.
Christ is no longer ruling your heart when you're griping.
Let me remind myself of this.
Christ is no longer ruling my heart when I'm complaining.
I want to share this quote with you.
And we're just about finished.
Appreciation is the highest form of prayer.
It acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
Alan Cohen said that.
And I want to change it.
And I want to change it a little bit.
Look at it again.
Appreciation is the highest form of prayer.
For it acknowledges the presence of let's change good to God.
It acknowledges the presence of God wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts centered on God.
Wherever you choose to shine the light of the gratitude that the Holy Spirit gives your heart.
You will see the presence of God wherever you shine that light.
Even in tragedy.
Even in loss.
Even in.
I don't know if I should say it.
Change.
Such a terrifying word.
You can still see the presence of God there.
If you choose to shine the light of a thankful heart onto that situation.
So here's my challenge for you.
Trade your thanksgiving thought for a Holy Spirit habit.
Don't just be a thanksgiving thankful person.
Let God change you into a truly thankful person year round.
Because wherever you shine the light of that thankful heart.
You'll see God there.
So the big idea of this whole series.
The last six weeks.
Is this.
When Christ rules your heart.
Gratitude rules you.
When Christ rules your heart.
He rules everything.
And it changes your perspective on everything.
From focused on me.
To thankfulness to God.
From focused on me.
To thankfulness to God.
From focused on whether I'm happy or not.
Whether everything lines up just how it's supposed to.
When Christ rules my heart.
He rules everything.
Christ is over all.
Would you bow your heads with me?
God I pray right now on behalf of all the people.
That you have gathered in this room.
That you would rule our hearts.
That we would not be hard hearted against you.
That we would not be resistant.
We see cautionary tales of the children of Israel.
Wandering through Egypt.
Captivated in Egypt.
And then freed.
And then wandering through the desert.
And we see their hard heartedness.
We see them turn against you.
Time and time again.
No matter how many times you come through for them.
God we can apply that directly to our lives.
You've come through for so many in this room.
Time and time again.
And yet we still struggle with fear.
We still struggle with doubt.
And we still abandon thankfulness.
If there's ever a week.
To turn our attention back to you.
And let you capture our hearts.
To truly change us.
This would be the week to start it.
I pray that you would do a work in our hearts.
Right now.
Before we leave.
Before we start Thanksgiving week.
Change us from the inside out.
Church the organ is going to play just for a moment.
Would you keep your seats?
Yes.
Gratitude is not determined by your situation.
It's determined by our Savior.
We can always be thankful.
I'm grateful for what Presley taught those kids.
She literally said those words.
Always be thankful.
May our prayers become more God-centered.
May our perspective become more about God's kingdom.
That's what's important.
God's mission in this world.
And may our words become more filled with grace.
Many of us are going to gather with family this week.
That can be stressful situations sometimes.
Sometimes blow-ups can happen around the holidays.
Let our words be words of grace.
Let Christ rule over our hearts.
Let our words do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do not do for those who do for those who do not do for those who do for those who do not