Gregg Marutzky: I guess it's a youth service.
We've had Sonny and Kyle and Jasmine now me, so I guess it's, uh, more of a
youth, uh, oriented service this morning.
Man, Sonny, don't worry about, uh, being a little bit shorter.
You got the hair, buddy?
You got the hair?
Yeah.
Oh, I love Sonny.
Uh, I was, uh, his sector leader for a very short time up in Santa Clarita.
And, uh.
Love him and his family.
And, uh, just to see him growing and now a college student and
get becoming a a, a man is, uh, is I'm very proud of you, Sonny.
And, uh, all of our college students.
We have some great ones.
I met two of the guys that got baptized last week and, uh, wow.
Some, uh, good looking guys, girls.
Very good looking.
Yeah.
I'm serious.
Yeah.
Uh.
Now I, I'm a little, uh, surprised.
You know, I've been in LA back in LA for 10 years here, and, uh,
I, I finally converted my wife to, uh, be a d uh, a Dodger fan.
And, uh, so, uh, now to hear that, uh, I'm in, in Orange County and I've
gotta sort of shift my allegiance.
I, I, I've been an Angel fan.
That's the only, uh, tickets I could, uh, afford.
So I've been going to a lot of Angels games with my daughter and son-in-law.
So I'm an Angel fan and hey, we are all angels, right?
We're angels.
Yeah.
I mean, if we're not angels, God help us.
Amen.
But, uh, we could be artful Dodger fans too.
Right?
And, uh, I don't know.
I stood up way too late, uh, watching, uh, one of the games, the 18 inning game.
Uh, it's great to live with babies though, 'cause you, you can't turn on the sound.
You have to just, uh.
Turn on the closed caption.
And since I have terrible eyesight, I just make it up as as as we go.
Just make it up.
And then last night we were at a dinner party.
We have a, uh, Colorado, uh, university reunion, uh, couple times a year.
There's been five.
First there were six couples, then one moved away, and this
last year, another one moved away.
So there's four couples now, and, and they're all retired.
And, uh.
Uh, they're talking about how tough it is to be retired and, uh, and, uh, I
had no empathy sympathy at all, at all for them because, uh, I'm, uh, not even,
don't even want to think about that.
'cause uh, there's just too much in the Lord to do.
This morning, I want to talk about gratitude.
I mean, we're gonna make this a, a month of gratitude, a month
of Thanksgiving, all right.
Yes.
I mean, sometimes you spread out your birthday, right?
I mean, I try to spread mine out for at least a week.
Okay.
I mean, just one day seems like not enough to celebrate me.
All right.
I, I, I think it needs to be a little bit longer and I think it,
I think we need to spread out.
Thanksgiving so that we can just grow in this habit.
It's not time to think about Christmas, even though the, the, the
marketers want us to think about that.
We'll think about that after Thanksgiving, but let's think about
Thanksgiving and thankfulness and gratitude for this whole month.
And so I, uh, really want this to be one of the virtues of our
church, and I think it can be Amen.
And I've got some beautiful slides.
I, I know that's what you're gonna be thinking.
Beautiful slides.
There we go.
Celebrating God's faithfulness throughout the year.
Definitely throughout this month.
And, uh, as you get older, you start to appreciate the
finer things of life, you know?
And so, uh, I grew up in Western Colorado, a place called Fruita,
a little bit of a hick town.
And so, uh, you know, you, you sort of try to.
Learn a little bit and become a little more sophisticated.
So now I'm a man of poetry.
Man of poetry.
And if you, you can't be, uh, somebody that appreciates poetry.
If you don't like Maya Angelou, right?
And one of her, uh, uh, statements in her book, celebrations, rituals, uh, of peace
and prayer, is this one, let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel.
Just say your nightly prayer.
Amen.
And if you don't have a pillow at some point in time in life, you'll age
and you'll have a pillow for Neely.
All right?
Yeah.
Laugh with me.
Laugh instead of cry.
Amen.
And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil.
And welcome.
Good.
This concept, this idea of combining.
Faith and gratitude.
We'll see more in this sermon, but turn your Bibles, if you
will, to Luke chapter 17.
You always gotta start with a good story.
Okay?
And this story is, uh, about, uh, Jesus healing the tent lepers.
And, uh, I was on the Hope Worldwide Board for 12 years and we have the Village
of Hope in India that, uh, serves the.
People with leprosy, it's Hansen's degree, uh, Hansen's disease.
There's medication for it, people can be treated, but the very
poor, uh, can't get that medicine.
And so we started this Village of Hope and, uh, it's, it's devastating to see
what Hansen's disease does to people's, uh, extremities, especially their
hands, their limbs, that kind of thing, especially since it's so treatable.
But I can understand and I can picture.
This story.
And so let's read together in Luke chapter 17.
And, uh, you know, I'm always gonna bring my Bible up here
because we're a Bible church.
All right?
You didn't come to hear Dr.
Greg.
You came to hear God.
It's a waste of time to just hear a human.
We want to hear the voice of God.
We wanna be touched by the spirit of God.
We want to commune with like-minded people of faith, so the spirit moves among us.
And so let's listen to the word of God this morning as Jesus shared this story.
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border
between Samaria and Galilee.
Interesting.
He didn't go through Samaria this time.
When he reached out to the woman at the, well, he went through Samir,
but here he goes between both places.
As he was going into a village, 10 men who had leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice.
Jesus Master have pity or mercy on us.
Some nights when you're really hurting, you can't get to sleep.
You got a lot on your mind and on your heart.
A lot of burdens.
This is a great prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
You can expound it.
It can be Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
But I just say have mercy.
'cause I like to make it a breath prayer.
And the shorter the sentence, the better the breathing.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on it.
Cry mercy.
Don't beg for justice.
Don't beg for something you think you deserve.
We're not entitled.
It's a gift of grace and love and mercy for God to pay
attention to us, his creation.
And so this was the right heart.
This is the right attitude.
This is the way to approach the divine in humility.
Have mercy on us.
And so he says to 'em in verse 14, when he saw them, he said,
go show yourselves to the priest.
As they went, they were cleansed.
Seems like there's always some act of obedience that God wants, that Jesus
wanted for people to get truly cleansed.
And when people aren't willing to humble themselves and put themselves on the
altar, put themselves out there to trust and obey, you don't get healed.
But they got healed 'cause they trusted and they obeyed.
He sent 'em to the priest.
'cause they can't be a part of the community without the priest who wasn't
a doctor, but he was a health inspector.
He did decide whether they could be a part of the community or not.
And he did have to cleanse them.
And he did have to receive their sacrifice to be cleansed.
And I don't know where these poor people were gonna get three lambs, two
male lambs and a female lamb to offer.
But that's what they had to do when they went to the priest to be healed.
Then they could become a part of the community again.
So Jesus is sending them to have fellowship, be a part of the community.
Hold on to that thought as we talk about gratitude.
Let's keep reading though.
All right.
He goes on and says, verse 15, one of them when he saw he was healed came back.
Praising God in a loud voice, so he's hollering and screaming
and getting Jesus' attention.
He threw himself at Jesus' feet and he thanked him and he was a Samaritan.
Now we've heard a little bit about what Samaritans were.
They were half Jewish and half something else.
When the Assyrians conquered the promised land, that's how
they conquered the people.
They intermarried them, interbred 'em.
They could not rise up again against them.
And so they would intermingle all these different peoples that they conquered.
The good thing the Babylonians didn't do that, so they just took the Jews off
into exile and they brought 'em back.
And so we still had the tribe of David, so Jesus could be pure in
blood, but not the Samaritans.
They were intermixed, but they also worshiped two golden calfs Jar Bowen.
One of the judges won the first Kings.
And not Kings.
One of the first judges built not just one golden calf, but two, and
that's what the Samaritans worshiped.
And so they were pagans.
So the, the Jews who worshiped Yahweh looked down on them,
looked at 'em with disgust, and so Jesus is a little surprised.
Hey, the only person with gratitude and thankfulness is a Samaritan.
There are some Jews that I healed.
Where are they?
Well, they wanted to get back to their families so much.
In fact, I, I read a little something this week about what were
some of the reasons the other, uh, uh, uh, folks didn't come back.
And, uh, I'm not even gonna read 'em to you.
They disgusted me, so I probably shouldn't share 'em with you.
You know, they just said, well, I, I was getting better anyway, so I
didn't really need to be healed.
You know, it's amazing we come up with things.
And reasons not to be grateful to God, and sometimes it's,
well, I deserve to be healed.
Anyway, mercy.
Mercy.
But he was a Samaritan.
So in verse 17, Jesus asked, we're not all 10 cleansed.
Where are the other nine was no one found to return and give praise
to God except this foreigner.
Then he said to him, rise and go.
Your faith, your faith has made you well.
So I wanna propose something to us this morning.
All right.
I wanna propose that this, uh, that faith produces gratitude,
but also gratitude produces faith.
I studied with a single for almost three years, one of the member's sons.
That, uh, had left the church and he came back.
He's willing to get with me and I mean, I studied everything
I knew to study with him.
I went through the study series a couple times.
I made up studies.
I'd find something to study with him every Tuesday morning and
he just couldn't develop faith.
Well, now he's developed faith.
He's in, uh, Rio de Janeiro.
He's going to church.
It's, uh, very exciting.
His brother came back from college into our congregation.
He's one of the song leaders there.
This is what I should have known.
I wish I'd have known when I studied with you that faith produces
gratitude, but the opposite is true also, gratitude produces faith.
There's a positive psychology, uh, approach.
It's a science these days in, uh, scholarship and
it's studying transcendence.
It's just the academic way to say God and to get around talking about.
God and faith in the academy, and one of the elements of that they found that you
have to have, if you're gonna appreciate and, and, and believe in transcendent
or other words, the divine is gratitude.
If we're not grateful people, we can't see God.
We can't know God.
God will be far from us.
We'll be distant if you are a grumpy old man.
If you're a grumpy old woman, if you're a grumpy young man, if you're a grumpy
young woman, you can't have faith.
You won't see or believe or appreciate the miracles that are all around us.
You won't see the divine or the transcendent.
It, this emoji won't mean to you what it means to me.
Right.
I mean, at first I just thought it meant prayer, but it's, it's, it's the,
it's the emoji for thanks or gratitude.
It looks like prayer to me though, doesn't it?
To you anyway.
I don't know who made that up, but it, but the other one who, who
knows this other symbol is a symbol.
For gratitude too.
How, how many of you knew that?
Raise your hand if you knew that.
Well, I'm a little surprised.
It, it's a Hawaiian, it's a, it's an Asian symbol.
All right.
And it's, they both mean gratitude, but gratitude produces faith.
And faith produces gratitude.
In first, Alians five in verse 18, it says, give thanks in all
circumstances, even the bad ones.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
I don't know about you, but a lot of my life came easy.
I was blessed with athletic ability.
I was blessed with academic talent.
I was blessed to be good looking enough.
Alright?
Yeah.
I got the cheerleader.
So it, it, it, I, it, you know.
Don't sell me short.
Okay?
Don't sell me short.
But then at some point in my life, things didn't keep coming
so easy and going so well.
Everybody hits the wall.
At some point in your life, you get some kind of accident,
some kind of disappointment, some type of shattered dream.
It hits everybody.
Nobody has it all.
This scripture still reads, give thanks.
In all circumstances, gratitude is to give goodness and grace to others.
Are we really, truly grateful?
What does it take to be grateful?
I researched it a little bit.
I guess it's easier for me to be grateful than for some
people 'cause I'm an extrovert.
Alright?
I go to McDonald's.
I don't sit down by myself.
I find somebody I can be friends with, a relatively friendly stranger.
That's what I look for.
All right?
And I get into some of the best conversations, all right?
And my kids think this is a little weird.
My wife thinks it's very weird, but what's weird to me is sitting there
by myself like a loser, you know?
So I sit with people.
I'm not a loser.
All right?
And, and I have to break the eyes.
You sit down there like, you know what they're thinking.
They don't say it, but what are you doing here?
You know, and I, I ask them, can I sit down?
And, and it's a little easier at Costco, all right?
I mean, it's got the best lunch in the world.
Dollar 50, hot dog and coke.
All right.
I did it twice this week.
All right?
I mean, you gotta be frugal in the kingdom.
Okay?
No, I got sent on errands and I was there, and so I.
I, and both times the Dodgers won.
So now I gotta go to Costco when, whenever they have a big game.
All right.
But I, I did the same thing.
I sat down with somebody and it's a little awkward at first, and they,
I then, then we get chatty and I always ask 'em, Hey, will, will you
watch my stuff while I get a drink?
And then they figure out why I want, wanna sit with somebody.
And I have great conversation.
Extroversion helps you to be grateful.
That just means social.
Be nice to people.
Be social openness to experience.
This one I have to work on a little bit.
You know, I go to a nice place for dinner, I order a steak.
Kathy goes, don't you want to try something different?
Nope, I want a steak.
You know, it looks like they have some really cool other things.
Greg, why don't you get something different?
Nope, I wanna stay.
Why spend that much money and not like it.
Right.
And so I need to be more open to new experiences so I can be grateful.
Agreeableness some people, they choose not to be agreeable, you know?
I'm just playing devil's advocate.
No, you're just being a devil.
Okay.
That was strong.
You're just being demon like.
Right.
I mean, it it is, it's as if it's an, okay.
I'm just playing the devil's advocate.
Well, don't ever play the devil.
All right.
Play the Christian.
How about, all right, agreeableness conscientiousness.
That just means you, you do what you say you're gonna do.
You're disciplined about it.
You're a hard worker.
And then the opposite.
What hurts us to be grateful is being negative, being neurotic.
That encompasses a lot of things.
Worrying about stuff, having fear of the future, having anxiety, letting
things get us down, being, this is from the National Institute of Health.
I want us to be grateful as a congregation.
I want this us to be known.
I want us to be able to count our blessings.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Paul says in Philippians, this is the secret.
You wanna be happy?
He says, I found this secret to be content in every situation.
I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
As Christians, we can be grateful people because we have the Holy Spirit of God.
Amen.
We got it.
We got, we got baptized, and in Jesus Christ, just don't quit it.
I think at first I thought, well, okay, now I'm Christian.
I should just be happy, self controlled, loving.
Peaceful, you know, kind all those things.
Now you gotta feed the spirit a little bit, all right?
You can't starve the spirit, you know?
And that's a little bit of a bummer.
I wish God would just zap us when he gives us the Holy Spirit.
Just fill us completely up with it to overflowing, so then we
all get along in the church.
No, we gotta fuel the spirit.
We gotta feed it.
In many ways, we can do all things.
So count your blessings.
During this sermon, write down things you're grateful for.
Big things and little things you know.
Every morning.
I thank God for my warm shower.
So have you not had warm showers most of your life?
Greg?
You know, I've had warm showers most of my life, but I went to
Russia for a period of time and just to have a shower was a blessing.
It was never warm and oh, can you sing loud or high when you're in a shower
with cold water and you can dance in the shower when you have cold water,
but you're just so sick of yourself, you wanna get clean, you don't care whether
it's hot or cold, you just shower.
And then if you get a towel and and their towels are our dish rags.
All right.
At least back in the early days, you know, they give you just this little bitty rag.
Well, that works for some of you, but look at me.
All right.
I'm a little on the larger side.
All right?
I need, I need a couple dish towels.
All right.
And so every morning I thank God for my shower.
I thank God for my, my, my, my towel.
And my wife makes the towel smells so good.
I mean, I don't know if it's downy or tight.
I don't know what it is, but it smells good.
It's easy for me to be grateful and, and then I step out and I step on a carpet,
a nice s rug, and it's, you know, when you have old feet, you like carpet.
To walk around the house on the, on the, the tile and the floor.
I gotta put on my house shoes.
I got old feet.
Oh no.
This is the youth service.
I can't admit that.
All right.
No, I had a, a therapist.
He was my counseling supervisory.
He said, Greg, I want you for 30 days.
The first day to think of one thing you're grateful for.
Second day, two things.
Third day, three things.
By the time you get to the 30th day, that's exponential growth.
It's having to think of a lot of things.
And he said I couldn't repeat myself
and I had to work hard to, to do that assignment, and he held me accountable.
But it helped me to be grateful, you know, the best thing that helped
me to be grateful and I'm, I'm almost ashamed to say this to you.
I have to tell you, working in a hospital for eight years
with very, very sick people,
I'd leave the hospital every day and I'd just have to say a prayer.
I'd be so full of emotions and stuff.
I'd seen so much during just one day.
Deaths and heartache and heartbreak and bad diagnosis.
Mistakes even in medicine and I'd have to just, just get it out.
Before I drove the first year, I didn't do that, had three car
accidents in the winter 'cause my head was in a just somewhere else.
I must have not seen those stoplights.
I just kept going.
And on the ice you needed to stop about two blocks ahead back, you
know, I slid a whole block once.
The people in Nebraska are so nice though.
They got out and said, oh, I'm so sorry.
I said, well, it's my fault.
You should be sorry.
And they said, yeah, we saw you come.
I slid that whole block too, but there was nobody in front
of me, so I didn't hit 'em.
I saw you come and I knew you were gonna hit me.
I'm so sorry I was here.
Well now say it.
I'm sorry you're there too.
But couldn't have hit a nicer guy, you know?
The Midwest people, if, if you haven't met 'em, they're very sweet people.
Count your blessings, brothers, sisters, count the big
things and the little things.
Don't just focus on the things you don't have.
Don't be an entitled, stuck up person.
All right?
And if and if you are, maybe someone will disciple you.
Okay?
Let's be grateful.
Let's count our blessings.
You know, I, I, I decided I'm gonna count some of my blessings.
First.
Food.
I like milk.
I do not like cereal without milk, but I like cereal with milk.
I like water, especially cold water.
I like bread and I have to beg my wife not to just buy wheat bread.
I like white.
No.
Good for you.
White toast, right?
I like pasta.
I love salad.
I really like ice cream.
The Dairy queen is way too close to our house.
I like chicken.
I love eggs.
I love fruit.
I thought about shelter.
Ah, a good bed.
A good bed.
There's nothing better.
All right.
A good shower, good washer, dryer, light.
I'm a person of light.
I don't know why, but I, if it's, if it's dim, I gotta turn on all the lights.
Let there be light.
I don't live in darkness.
I don't live in gray.
All right.
Let there be light.
I like television.
I like patios.
I like my couch.
I like refrigerators a lot,
just counting my blessings up here.
Clothing, I like shirts, pants, belts, coats, shoes, hats.
I like gloves too.
It would get cold up in Antelope Valley, 2,500 feet above.
One night I spent about 30 minutes chasing the wind to get my glove.
Really nice leather driving glove.
I wasn't gonna lose that thing, but the wind was a little
faster than me for a while.
Praise God for weeds, gloves, scarf, boots, gifts.
I like sight.
I'm blind in this eye.
All of you over here, you can make fun of me.
I won't even know it, right?
I like sight.
I like my brain.
I like energy.
I like health.
I've not always been healthy in the last few years.
I'm glad I have health.
I'm glad I'm coordinated.
It stinks to fall down a lot.
Family, conscience, salvation, especially heart.
Make your list, make it simple.
Appreciate the most minor things.
Amen.
I'm gonna give you a scripture here that you can go over in your quiet times,
Psalms one 16, and I'm just gonna list off, read these and make these points.
I really want you to embody those scr, these scriptures, though, I want you to
dwell on one a day for the next 20 days.
It takes 28 days to form a habit, so do eight of them twice.
All right?
The ones you really like.
Psalms one 16 verse one.
I'm grateful that God listens to me.
I love the Lord for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry.
For what?
Mercy.
He won't hear your complaining.
Oh, he'll listen to that.
Your requests.
You, you've cried for mercy.
Psalms 1 16 2.
Grateful that God cares because he turned his ear to me.
I will call on him as long as he lived.
Most of the world doesn't care, but God cares.
He's my best friend.
I hope he becomes yours completely.
Verse three, I'm grateful.
God understands the cords of death and entangled me.
The anguish of the grave came over me.
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
I had open, I not open heart surgery, but I had a heart
surgery where they put two stents.
And I had, I've had it twice and the first time they put me out,
and so the second time they said, Hey, do you wanna stay awake?
And well, okay.
Bad decision.
Bad decision, all right.
Because I'd been in emergency rooms, I've been in trauma bays
hundreds, thousands of times.
And at some point in the surgery, I flatlined.
I felt my chest almost explode.
I heard what they were saying and I knew what that meant, that they were losing me.
I thought, this is it.
I'm ready.
Lord, I wish I were asleep, but I'm ready.
And they, their medicines, their pressors, all those things worked.
They brought me back.
I'm grateful.
God cares.
I'm grateful.
He understands.
I'm grateful.
He saves.
Verse four, then I called on the name of the Lord.
Lord, save me.
Yes, I did pray that.
Verse five.
He says, I'm grateful, God's gracious.
The Lord is gracious and righteous.
Our God is full of compassion.
Not that many people are full of compassion.
They have some compassion, they have some empathy, but everybody has their limits.
But praise God, he doesn't have a limit.
Praise God.
He'll keep forgiving me 70 times seven times.
Seven times seven.
I'm grateful, God's gracious.
Verse six, I'm grateful.
God protects.
I don't know how many times I've needed protection.
God's angels have probably just kept cars in their lane when they were thinking
about coming over and smashing me.
You know, we don't even know how much we've been protected, but I
believe this verse that God protects the Lord, protects the unwary.
When I was brought low, he saved me.
Verse seven, God, I'm grateful.
God is good.
I know Satan's not good.
I hate Satan.
I hate how he causes, tries to destroy us.
I hate Satan.
You should, if you're a preacher, you know if, if you, if you don't believe
what you're pushing, you shouldn't do it.
All right?
So I hate Satan and I love God, and these are some of the reasons, but
I'm grateful that my God is good.
Return to your rest, my soul for the Lord has been.
Good to you.
Look back over your life folks and count your blessings, and
if you don't think there's been enough, it could have been worse.
Could have been worse.
That's what was good about working in the hospital.
It was their worst day and it was not my worst day.
There's so much to be grateful for.
If you're not a grateful person, you need to go start being around
people that have it harder than you.
You're an entitled person.
I would ask you to go serve.
You need to go with Martine and cross the border down to Tijuana and see
how some people are having to live.
We live in paradise.
We have it good.
I'm grateful God delivers for you.
Lord have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.
Verse nine.
I'm grateful God heals that I may walk before the Lord.
In the land of the living.
I mean, it wasn't less than a year ago.
I didn't know if I was gonna live through cancer and some nights I wanted to die.
It was so painful and I hated waking my wife up, moaning 'cause I was
in pain and you know it passed and I shouldn't have been such a baby.
I shouldn't have been so fearful I shouldn't have been so faithless.
But when you're in the midst of it, you feel it.
It's real.
You can't just say, go to sleep
'cause you can't sleep and your head races ahead of you.
But I am grateful.
Verse 10.
That God responds.
I trusted in the Lord when I said I am greatly afflicted.
Verse 11.
I'm grateful that God overlooks some of my complaints in my alarm.
I said, everyone's a liar.
There was a time I quit the ministry for a year.
I didn't think it was worth it anymore.
Everybody in church seemed ungrateful and I had spent myself for 25 years.
10 to 15 hour days, 60, 70 hours weeks, you know, trying to build up the church.
It was right after the letter.
It was a very difficult time in our churches and I said, I'm done.
But you know when God has a destiny for you, he doesn't.
Here.
I'm done.
He said, you'll be back a year later.
I was back.
I thought the easiest job in ministry would be a little church.
I was stupid.
A little church is the hardest job in our movement.
I was the only one on staff.
I was the janitor, secretary, administrator, broom
sweeper, trash taker, outer.
I was everything.
I was a toilet cleaner.
I mean, I'd go to this building and it was freezing cold.
I'd turn on the heat.
It had no windows.
They were up above.
All you could see is the storms, Nebraska and the winter sucks.
All right.
Not supposed to use that word.
I apologize.
Amen.
We
have it good.
Grateful that God responds.
Verse 10, verse 11.
Grateful that God overlooks.
Don't be negative, don't be critical.
Verse 12, grateful that God waits.
What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?
Verse 13.
Grateful that God is powerful.
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Verse 14.
Grateful Gods has promises for us.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of his
people because he's promised me.
And if I'll fulfill my vows, he'll be faithful to me.
God shows himself faithful to those who are faithful.
Can I get Amen?
Amen.
Verse 1915.
Grateful God prepares.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.
We'd like for him to hold off a little bit, but it is awesome
to go to a Christian's funeral.
You know, I, I've had to do some funerals of non-Christians
and I can't leave the grave.
Everybody leaves and I gotta stay there, and I finally get on my knees
and I pray for God's grace to extend.
Pray for mercy.
I pray against.
All hope in some ways at times is I just can't stand.
Somebody wouldn't be right with God, and at that point it's over.
It's not up to me.
It's up to God.
But I can't leave till I pray.
I'm grateful.
God's prepared you and me.
Verse 16, grateful God free.
Truly, I'm your servant Lord.
I serve you just as my mother did.
You have freed me from my chains.
Now dads, I'm sorry, he didn't say dads, he said mothers.
My dad left the church for 35 years.
He came back.
He was saved for three years, and he died the greatest miracle in this little
bitty church of Christ in Grand Junction.
They just, they were thrilled that Joe Murky came back.
They put a little sticker on a, on a, on a pew with a, a headphone.
He couldn't hear that well, so they, they, they had his place for him.
That was just such a victory.
'cause Sue was there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday
night, all those years by herself.
So when Joe came back, it was one of the greatest victories of the church.
It was a great victory for me too.
My mother's the one that gave me the faith, not my dad.
Moms don't ever give up on your kids.
Stay spiritual parents.
Lead your kids.
Don't let your kids lead you.
All four of us boys left.
Mother kept going.
I came back.
Then another one came back.
Finally.
The worst one came back and then the oldest one that we
never thought would come back.
He goes to church now more than I do.
It's my job.
Moms hang in there.
I don't know.
I'll just give you my opinion.
I think women are more spiritual than men.
Yeah, it's been my experience 45 years in ministry.
I'm sorry, brothers.
I wish I could say differently.
I'm a man.
I'm not picking on you.
All right.
It's just the way it is.
It's the way it is.
Verse 17.
I'm grateful.
God accepts us.
I will sacrifice the thank offering to you and call on your name, verse 18.
I'm grateful that he receives this.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
And then verse 19.
I'm glad that God is always present.
He arrives on time in the courts of the house of the Lord in your midst Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
God listens.
He cares.
He understands.
He saves.
He's gracious.
He protects, he's good.
He delivers.
He heals.
He responds.
He overlooks, he waits.
He's powerful.
He promises, he prepares, he frees, he accepts, he receives, he arrives,
and all of this says he blesses us.
So let's count those blessings.
Amen.
What are some action items?
How can you foster gratitude?
In your life.
Write it down.
Are you giving us homework?
Yeah.
I'm Dr.
Greg.
I'm a professor.
You bet.
I, I've been given so much homework too to get, to get done with all
that school that now I gotta turn around and give you the favor.
All right, so here's a little homework journal the things you're grateful for.
Writing it down is powerful.
Do some acts of kindness.
I mean, next time you go to Starbucks, pay for the garb behind you.
Leave them an extra and say, whatever's left, I just tip you.
You know?
Or give them a big tip, give them a five, a 10.
I won't be able to, but if you can't give them a 20.
All right.
An act of kindness.
Identifying strengths.
Do you tell other people how great they are?
I wish I could.
I don't, I can't say some of the nice things I'd like to say.
People think I might be flirting or something, so I can't say it.
You know?
I can tell my grand babies.
I can tell my wife, oh, your hair looks great.
Oh, you look so cute.
Yeah.
But maybe you can say it.
Women can say it to women.
Men can say it to me.
Oh, you look so cute, brother.
I had to wake you up.
Last one.
Mindfulness and engagement.
I don't know about you, but I take deep breaths.
I try to stay in the moment.
I strive to be mindful and aware.
Of the situation.
I'm not one of these guys that it comes natural.
I don't see the wind blowing before it hits me.
Some people see it coming.
I'm trying to be more in the moment and aware 'cause it helps you to be grateful.
Just a few thi few things to leave you with.
Be grateful creation, ever struggling with your depression or anxiety or fears.
Go to the beach, sit there.
Water keeps pounding in, boom, boom, boom.
It just makes you forget your problems.
It's so beautiful.
You stare at a while and think, is that real?
That that, that looks like a picture.
That is so beautiful.
Guys, we live in one of the most beautiful places in all the world.
Be grateful for small things.
Be grateful for life.
You know, I'm grateful I can walk.
I'm grateful I can pick things up.
I'm grateful I can move.
You know, be grateful for the little things.
Be grateful for life.
Be grateful for God's promises.
If you ever start thinking God isn't good enough, start reading the promises.
Get a book.
Get one of Max's books.
He's a friend of mine.
Get help him.
Get a little richer.
Buy Max Lucado's book, right?
And read about the promises.
He's got away with words.
He turns phrases.
He's a good writer.
All right?
And he is a good man.
Be grateful for the promises.
Be grateful for the blessings, and be grateful you're going to heaven.
There's a lot of bad things and rough things going on right now.
Don't dwell on them.
Don't get sucked down.
Don't let the dogs get you down.
I blow 'em off.
I'm gonna stay positive.
I'm gonna stay happy.
I'm gonna stay helpful.
I'm gonna be grateful.
I'm not gonna go to the dark side and haven't you guys seen Star Wars?
Come on.
I'm more than done.
God bless you people.
Let's be grateful.
Amen.