Speaker 1:

Well, good morning y'all. Glad you're here. We're going to finish up today, the last episode of No Hard Feelings, and it just happens to be that we're going to finish up with gratitude.

I'm glad you feel that way. My friends are coming with Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, we'll give you one. It's yours to keep for free. It is complimentary. You can take it with you, you can leave it in the seat, you can go to Quick Trip and put it in a bathroom and put a nice little note on it and say, "Read this." Whatever you want to do with it. It's really good. But one thing that I would ask you to do is just read it. Just read it. It's helpful to read the Bible. How many of you know that it's helpful just to read the Bible on occasion?

It just helps you out a little bit. You know what I mean? Let's pray. Father, we love you and today I am so grateful for your presence. Father, without your presence, this is all just a show and it means nothing, really, but with your presence, Father, this is life right here, and it's true that you've given that one word to be spoken that changes everything and that name is Jesus. So I speak that today over my friends and people who are watching and connected in different places and in Brown County, Lord. All the people that when they hear this and see this, that they'll know that the good thing that came out of this is the presence of God was here with us. Father, we love you. We're grateful. Amen.

So the dictionary says this about being grateful. Showing or expressing thanks, especially to another person. It also says this about being thankful. Aware and appreciative of a benefit, grateful, expressive gratitude, obtaining or deserving thanks, thank worthy. Here's what's interesting about those two words in the dictionary, is that they support, are somewhat interchangeable with each other, being thankful and being grateful, thankful and grateful.

For example, when I go to, I'm a Quick Trip guy. I don't buy the unhealthy stuff. I'll let you know that right now. I usually buy water, the little flavored water that's overpriced, but it's really good. That. I'll love that stuff. But I'll always go in and I'll try to look at the person's name behind the counter and they'll either Amy or George or Sam and when they're do ... The fried chicken's on sale tomorrow, come back tomorrow and get your fried chicken. I don't care nothing about your fried chicken, lady, but I do say this, "Amy, I appreciate you. Thanks." Now, sometimes people go, "Yeah, I recognize that." Other times when we don't show appreciation, people notice that as well. What I want to draw your attention to today is this, is that being thankful and being grateful is very important in our lives. Today's title, in fact, if you've not already figured it out, is Gratitude, ending on a high note.

Now, we have just finished probably one of the most amazing discipleship series we've ever done. I mean, amazing. If I've had one person, Pastor Dallas, I've had probably 15 people tell me personally, "This is the toughest series that you guys have ever done, that pastor has ever preached. It's been one of the toughest series, but I needed every bit of it. Every minute of it." Pastor and I were driving down the road the other day. We were somewhere in the United States of America, I think, and we were talking about this series and we were going, "How are we going to wrap it?" He said, "The last one is gratitude." I said, "Great. That's the one I'll do." He said, "I'm surprised you're going to do gratitude. I thought you would do anger or depression." I said, "Listen, Pastor, I'm tired of talking about that stuff. You can have all that. I want to go with gratitude. I'm just tired of depression."

I'm tired of hearing about ... Although we need to hear about depression, although we need to hear about, I'm tired of hearing about it. Okay? I want to talk about some gratitude, which is totally, if you know me, totally out of my character like Pastor Barry, will you smile more? "I'm smiling on the inside. That's all you need to know. I'm smiling right now. You see me smile. Don't tell me to smile again." But Pastor said, here's what I want to do. I want to end this series on a high note.

Gratitude, ending on a high note is the title of the message today. After we've talked about everything we've talked about in this series, I think one of the things that we really need to consider is ending on a high note. Most of us in our lives need to end something on a high note. I remember when I was going through Journey to Wholeness for the first time, one of the first things that you do is you go in and create a timeline. So I created my timeline, and as you know what here's interesting about Journey to Wholeness is once you open yourself up to listen to what's being said and trust the process, it's amazing what Holy Spirit will do to begin to unravel the trash and junk in your life. He did that. I began to write down stuff that I never remembered, but I remembered and when I remembered what I didn't remember before, I saw, I remember that, and this is why I did that.

So Pastor Becky, in her wisdom, she took my little thing and I wrote linearly and I wrote all these columns down and I write .. I'm a journal guy. Most of the young guys I talk to that I coach, they don't journal. They do it digitally. I said, "Well, you know what? You have every right to be wrong, young men. You need to take a pen and you need to take some paper and you need to write some things down." Nonetheless, I wrote it, gave it to Pastor Becky, and she said she was reading across it and she raised her head up and said, "Hmm, I want you to take this back and I want you to go in and I want you to put some positive stuff in here because all you've got's negative stuff."

You see, when we don't have gratitude in our lives, what we do is we tend to look for what we find and that's negativism. We don't see the hope, we don't see the future. We see what's in front of us and we only see the circumstance and the character and the nature of the circumstance that we find ourselves in, and then that is the way that we look at ourselves, we look at life, we look at other people, and in fact, the worst part of that is that's the way we look at the kingdom of God.

No hope. In fact, it's the opposite. When you speak the name of Jesus, you have just unleashed heaven on all of hell. I'll just throw that out there and leave that with you. This last week was a pretty amazing week for me in that it was the sixth week or sixth year of my kidney transplant. My sister donated a kidney to me. I was on dialysis, doing dialysis, and she donated a kidney to me. Had she not, I wouldn't be here today. I'm a firm believer in that. But I begin to think about how grateful I am for her and how thankful. Oh my God. So I begin to study about gratitude. Psychology Today, seven scientifically proven benefits of being grateful, having gratitude. Seven scientifically proven benefits of gratitude.

Number one, gratitude opens the door for more relationships. Number two, gratitude improves physical health. How of people that are not grateful, not thankful, they're like Eeyore on Winnie the Pooh. You ever met somebody like that? When I see them coming this way, I go that way. I don't want to hear it anymore. You, I don't. Hey buddy, there's four or five more guys over there that talk like you guys, go over there. Start an Eeyore life group cause I don't want none of that over here. Number three, gratitude improves psychological health. People who are grateful are not nearly as anxious or depressed or downtrodden as people who are full of gratitude. Number four, gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. I need that when I drive.

Number five, grateful people sleep better. Have you ever thought about what it would be like instead of laying in your bed and worrying at night before you go to sleep, to track back through your day and think about all the good things God's done for you that day? Here's the thing about God, he does things for us and lets us see some of them, but most of what he does for us is unseen. So if you start thanking God for the things seen and then unseen, you're going to open up a channel of blessing in your life and not so much. When you say blessing, people think about stuff. I take all my stuff and give me the presence of God and I'll be just fine. Come right, I don't need, No, I don't. There's nothing on this earth that holds my attention anymore. I'll just let you know. Just throwing that out there.

Gratitude improves self-esteem. Now, self-esteem is this, for the Christian, having confidence in what God is doing in my life, both in me, through me, around me, and for me having confidence in what he does, we all need to have confidence in who we are. Gratitude helps us improve our self-esteem. Number seven, last thing, gratitude increases mental strength. It increases mental strength.

Now, here's two questions I want to ask and I want to tell you the proposition I'm operating from, the presupposition, I'm sorry, the presupposition I'm operating from this morning. That is that we are all disciples. If you are a Jesus guy or a Jesus girl, you are a disciple. If you are not a Jesus guy or Jesus girl, you have opportunity today to hear a little bit about what it is and then to maybe join the crowd. But I will tell you this, that if you are a Jesus guy or a Jesus girl, you're a disciple. The question is, what caliber of disciple are you? What caliber of disciple am I? Here are two questions I want to ask you. Number one, are you grateful? Or, number two, are you ungrateful?

Grateful people experience more joy in life and are more of a joy to be around people who are grateful? Gratitude transitions my thinking and belief, transforming my mind and my soul to see the goodness and the greatness of God in every circumstance and situation. The reason that most of us are not grateful is because we do not understand who we are. We do not understand who God is and we really don't understand what gratefulness is. Gratefulness is noticing and understanding who God is and what he's done and is doing and will do if we'll get out of the way and let him do it in us.

Gratitude, being thankful is an act of worship. Gratitude not only honors God, but it blesses me and it blesses the people that's around me. If you're a person that attracts people, it's probably because there's something about you that they draw near to, hopefully, I believe to be Jesus. I hope that's that, but people who are truly grateful, who have gratitude, those people attract other people. They will attract. They will, as my grandmama used to say, they will attract grateful people, attract other people like flies are attracted to honey.

Being grateful is cultivated. It is a spiritual discipline that we all have. Let me talk just a second about why. Why people are not grateful. People are not grateful or they complain or they're negative or they can only see the downside because of four reasons. Number one, we live in a sin curse world. It's a wicked world. It's a sinful world, but greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, which gives us a superior position above the enemy to live in this world, live in this life, we have a superior position above the enemy. That's why when you're grateful and you begin to thank God and you begin to thank him for the seen and the unseen things he's doing, and thank him for the things in the future that you expect him to do based on his word, you will begin to see future and kingdom different and you will see something in you. You will see emotional and mental fog leave your life and you'll be able to see the kingdom for actually what it is.

Number two, they don't understand gratitude or thankfulness. This is why people complain, why they're negative, why there's a downside, why they're not thankful. Number three, some people are just simply ungrateful and unthankful. They're going to be unthankful, they're going to be ungrateful. I know a few of those people, they're sad people. They're just sad. Only God can help them and number four, some people are just sad and downtrodden and they can't see yet beyond their circumstance. That's why people are negative. That's why they don't see anything. My grandmother used to say, "Son, you'll find what you look for." You'll find what you look for. Ask any entrepreneur in this room and they'll tell you. You'll find what you look for. Ask any negative person in this room and they'll tell you they found what they're looking for. I'm just saying.

Pastor and I were traveling somewhere in the United States of America the last couple of weeks. I don't remember where, I think it was, it was West Virginia, so we stopped and we got fuel and we got some unhealthy snacks because when you're on the road, you're allowed to eat unhealthy stuff. That's the rule. Be clear, at least the rule for us, be clear. What we eat is none of your business. We met this lady, we were walking out to 7-11 in West Virginia. It was a depressed, suppressed coal mining town. Some of the finest people who ever meet in the world, coal miners, great people, hard workers. They're just good people. I mean, they keep America going if you know what I mean.

So this little lady, it was about 9:00, Pastor Sean, we were walking out with our unhealthy food on full tanks of gas and he said, "How are you doing?" And she was sitting there. The young gal, young gal smoking a cigarette just she had taken her draw the cigarette in and he said, "How you doing?" And she said this. She said, "Well, I was up at 6:00 AM this morning changing out my water heater that had bursted and then I came to work and I'm finishing up a double shift." This was at 9:00 at night and pastor in his traditional fashion, he said, "Well, I hope your day gets better." I'll never forget what that girl said, I'll never in my life forget what she said. She says, "Oh, it's always better." It's always better.

I will tell you this, some people in this room desire to have spiritual power and I will tell you the first step for you to have spiritual power in your life is to be grateful and quit looking for the stuff that your circumstance and your past has beat into your brain and your life. Your circumstances are not your final destination. They're a doorway. Now, if you want to make them your final destination, go ahead, but that's not what God intended. In fact, he will see to it that you don't stay there unless you just really want to stay there. That's because he loves us.

Five risks, Psychology Spot says, five different risk that we are subject to if we're ungrateful. Number one, chronic unhappiness. You ever met somebody that's chronically unhappy? It's a sad thing. Chronic unhappiness. Unhappiness is a contagious disease caused by chronic deficiency of gratitude. Number two, people who are ungrateful are tied to trauma. Drama begets trauma and trauma creates more drama. Number three, more mental disorders. People who are ungrateful tend to be more depressed, have more unrealistic expectations and tend to wander off the grid in hopelessness because they have nothing to be hopeful for, nothing to look forward to and all they can see as they live in the past, shadow of death from where they came. Number four, ungrateful people tend to face the circumstance of being condemned to despair. Number five, they have worse health. People who are ungrateful are unhealthy, they're weary. They can't sleep, they can't eat, and they drive other people away from them because nobody wants to be around an ungrateful person.

I don't want to be around ungrateful people. I grew up with ungrateful people and in the ministry a good portion of the time, all you deal with is ungrateful people, and I would just tell you now, I tell people I love my job. I love my job, but if it weren't for ... I would have an easier job if it weren't for people. I'm just throwing that out there.

Now, here's the verse I want to talk to you about. It's this. 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ." If you want to know what God's will is for your life and for my life, know this, be thankful in all circumstances. Now, after this last series that we've gone through, we have surfaced up some circumstances that maybe we didn't want to think about, but in this series we've learned that we can be thankful in all things because he is with me. He's got a better plan for me than right now. He's got a better plan for me than my mama told me I would have for my life. He's got a better plan for all the naysayers that stand over by the side and point their finger and excuse me, he, Jesus, has a better plan.

Now, pet peeve. I'm just going to share it with you whether you want it or not. Take it home. In Cinderella, if the shoe doesn't fit, throw it behind you. Somebody else will get it, but here's the story. How many of you have ever heard someone say thank God for everything you're going through, because he won't put more on you than you can bear. You ever heard that? Let me just tell you, right, let me stop you right now.

I've been saying that a lot, lately to people, it feels really good. Let me just stop you right there. None of that's true, none of that. That verse that misrepresented, misquoted, twisted up, tangled up, heretical little saying, I just read you. That's that's not even true. None of that's true. I'm just telling you, none of it's true. Thank God for everything because he won't put more on you than ... You know what? That's none of that's true. I want you to walk away knowing that's not true, and if you've said it to people, it's just because you didn't understand and you were trying to be a well-intentioned dragon. That's all. Some of you got that ...

The verse is co-mingle that become her radical is the other verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says, "No temptation is overtaking you except such as common demand, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but when the temptation also makes way for you that you may be able to bear it," to bear making it through the temptation that you're in. Temptation comes from externally and it comes from internal desires. The scripture says so whatever the temptation is, God makes a way of escape. He makes a way for us out of it. It doesn't mean that when you go through hard times that he's going to make it easy. Just the opposite. What Abby Heinrich said at prayer. It's just the opposite. He's going to put us in situations that mash the junk out of us.

Be thankful in all circumstances. That doesn't mean be thankful because "Oh God, thank you. I just wrecked my car and it's totaled." How stupid does that sound, first off? I never used the word stupid, but how stupid does that sound? God, thank you that I climbed on a ladder. I'm a man and I tried to stretch further than I could and I fell and broke both my femurs. Thank you, God, for ... What are you thinking God for? You made a bad decision. Friends, listen. Listen. We live between the day of our birth and the day of our death and in the middle there's this hyphen and that hyphen place that we live in the middle are circumstances.

Let me say it again. The day we die and the day we're born and the day we die in between is a hyphen. And that hyphen are the circumstances in which we live. There are the circumstances in which we find ourself, whether they're self-induced or self-imposed or from just life in general living in this world. We are in the middle in the hyphen. The hyphen is the between of the day we are born and the day we die. The day that we die, we enter into the next life. So the circumstances that we find ourselves in are the middle and God is the God of the middle.

I want to tell you four words that are in that verse. Talk to you about that. There are four words. I like the Greek language. Let me zip through these quick. The word be means this. To stand or remain or be fixed to continue on. Be fixed, but continue on. Be. Thankful is the word Greek word eucharisto now, some of you have already gone to the Eucharist. Be thankful. Goodness received, properly acknowledging that God's grace works well. It's good grace. It's God's grace. It's the grace. This is what this word thankful means. It's the grace that takes us through where we are into where he wants us to be, bringing glory and honor to his name and his name alone. That's what disciples do. They bring glory to his name and his name alone. And that word, that little word in means it means to be properly fixed inside the position from which you stand. Be fixed and then circumstances means wherever you find yourself.

Jesus was with the disciples in the upper room and he had primed and prepped them for taking over the mission and going forward and he was spending time with them and he was preparing them and saying this before I go to my suffering, before I culminate this, before I tell you I'm leaving here, I'm going to my suffering, I want you to know this, and I read from Luke chapter 22. "'For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until this meeting is fulfilled in the kingdom.' Then he took the cup of wine and he gave thanks. He gave thanks to God and then he said, 'Take this and share it among yourselves for I will not drink this again until we come to the kingdom of God is or until the kingdom of God is coming.' Then he took some bread and gave thanks to God. Then he broke into pieces and gave it to the disciples saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this and remembrance of me.'"

Did you know that word thankful that Jesus used is the same word that Paul used for you and for me to be thankful in every circumstance we find ourselves for this is the will of God. Jesus, in that moment, not only was doing the obvious, but he was the forerunner for you and for me. In the circumstances in which we find ourselves to understand that in this moment there is a greater thing happening than what I see, think, feel or understand. There is a thing happening right now, in this moment, in this circumstance I'm in. God, take me around it. Take me over it. Take me under it. Take me anywhere but through it and in this moment with the disciples, Jesus spent three years prepping them for that moment right there and he was saying, "Look, this is what I'm going to do. Yeah, I understand what's happening here. I am taking on this. This is what God's called me to and for me to take you where you need to go, I have to do this. I have to be crucified, so I break this bread and I give you this wine."

Jesus was the forerunner in your circumstance and in mine for us to be thankful, to be grateful. Not for it, but in it, because it is where the gold is that Abby was talking about. That's the gold. And I will tell you this, the quicker that you and I learn to be thankful in every circumstance, the quicker will get through it. Come on. I will tell you that right now, unashamedly, going to the school of hard knocks and I will tell you that that is the truth, my friend, be thankful. Be thankful. Jesus himself, friend, is with you right now in your circumstance and you may be so full of despair that you can't see the light through the darkness. Be thankful. This which I'm going through is good for me. It is good grace. God is doing something in me that nothing else could do except for me to go through this, whether it's self-induced or not. This is the hyphen, this is the middle. This is where God has you. Stop running from where God has you.

Let's pray. One of the phrases I like to use is, have you come to the place in your life where you have given the Lord Jesus Christ first position and final authority? Have you given him first position and final authority? Our circumstances bring us to a place to acknowledge who Jesus really is because we cry out to him and scream, "Help," and he is a faithful God that he helps in time of trouble. If you're saying today that in this moment, in this place "I need to follow Jesus, I need to be a Jesus person. I need to embrace being a disciple. I want to give Jesus first position in my life and final authority." If that's you, would you raise your hand and look at me? Just slip your hand up, drop it back down. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. I want to give Jesus first position in my life and final authority, final say, final worry. If that's you, if that is you, we're going to pray a prayer and as you do exactly this, confess that Jesus Christ, confess your sins and profess that he is Lord of all, then Jesus comes into your life. Would you follow me in this prayer? Everybody, please. Lord Jesus.

Congregation:

Lord Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Forgive me of my sin.

Congregation:

Forgive me my sin.

Speaker 1:

I give you first place and final authority.

Congregation:

I give you first place and final authority.

Speaker 1:

Cleanse my heart.

Congregation:

Cleanse my heart.

Speaker 1:

Help me to move forward in the kingdom.

Congregation:

Help me to move forward in the kingdom.

Speaker 1:

In Jesus name. Now, for those of you, if you keep your head bowed, you could say, "Barry, I'm going through some really tough stuff right now and for whatever reason I can't even explain it, but I just know that what I've heard this morning is the catalyst for helping me move forward." If that's you this morning in the circumstance going, Just raise your hand up. Look at me. Well, hello. All right, thanks. Father. For my friends who have raised their hands indicating that the circumstances through which they go now at this moment are more challenging than they're able to bear, I ask you to give them the power in the middle, in the hyphen, in their lives. In Jesus' name, amen.