Inland Empire: Riverside
Transformed By Gratitude - Audio
Good to be with the church this morning. I bring you greetings from last week was out in Utah with Joe and Lauren got married last week out in Utah was very encouraging and the church is doing very well in Utah. I want to bring you just good news. They have a couple players on the football team who have become disciples in the church out there. They've been restoring people to the fellowship. They're adding to the number. It's growing. The heart, the effort, the resources we've even given over to that work, really God is multiplying and blessing. It is exciting to see God growing a sister church out there. I was just grateful to be there and see the faith and the spirit. This is the season of Thanksgiving. This is Thanksgiving week. I don't know if you know the origin of Thanksgiving, but early in the days of the beginning of our country, the history says the pilgrims celebrated a Thanksgiving when they had a great harvest in Plymouth, Massachusetts and other historians who say it started in Florida when the Spanish people who came on over to America, they were having a Thanksgiving feast and we know it's been a tradition. We also know that during the Civil War or after the Civil War, they began to celebrate it at the end of November, Abraham Lincoln wanted to do that, to really unify the country, and then we know in 19, I believe it was 1941, Roosevelt signed into law to actually celebrate as a national holiday Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of the month, and so that's what we're doing now. We've been doing it my whole life. I've been doing it. I'm sure you've been doing it. And I've heard it said maybe we should have 364 days to Thanksgiving and only one day for complaining. One day of just griping and complaining, that's it, this one day you get the griping complain, instead we have the one day that we all have to be grateful. It's easy in our culture to be unhappier to griping complain. It's sad that that's that way that we're that, we just get stuck in it. I remember a long time ago, right after Cara and I's fifth anniversary, we had opportunity to go to a campus conference out in London, the world conference back then was being held out there. So I made arrangements that we would stop before we got to the conference, we'd stop part of our anniversary in Paris, France, and I thought that would be awesome, right? To get a chance to go there, I was our early 30s, I thought that'd be exciting, and what happened was I had this whole detailed plan mapped out for our trip over there, and you know, we were only going to be there for a day and a half or two days before we had to go to the conference. So I had every hour mapped out, I were going to make the most of our time, and just have a really romantic, special memory, I loved history. So I thought this was going to be incredible. And when we got on the plane, and you know, how all my detailed schedule mapped out, guess what happened, the plane sat there on the tarmac and was delayed for like hours. And you know, I began to get really grumpy. I mean, I got really unhappy, and grumpy, and frustrated, and frazzled. My plans were not going to work out. I knew when we needed to land, and where we're going to go, and things weren't going to work the way I wanted them to. And I was just in a bad, you can ask Kerry, yeah, he was in a bad mood. So I wanted you to get this. So here I was with my beautiful wife going on a really exciting trip to be part of a great campus conference, you know, over there in London, I was going to get to see places I'd never seen in my life. I'd even made preparations to go to Paris, France, which is going to be so exciting, and I'm really grumpy on the plane because things weren't going the way I wanted. You know, many of us can be that way, all too often. And you know, if you're ungrateful, you're going to be unhappy. If you're focused on yourself, and your own plans, and your own way, and I think it's going to work out for you, you're going to be unhappy. Sadly, most of America can relate to me. Sadly, some go way beyond that. In our culture today, 18.8 million American adults are about 9.5% of the population, 18 and older, are given into serious depression every year. They say about 30 to 40% of people are depressed, especially women in particular. We find that statistically, we know at some point everyone's affected by depression, either somebody they know or themselves, we find that 15% of depressed people will actually take the step of committing suicide. We live in a dark world, a world that gets focused on all the problems, and we get down on ourselves so easy, and yet there is a solution, and the solution is gratitude. Listen to this little story, it's called the Cookie Thief. A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shop, bought a bag of cookies, and found a place to drop. She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see that the man beside her, as bold as he could be, grabbed a cookie or two from the bagged between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene. She read "Munch cookies" and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd blacken his eye." With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do. With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half as he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, "Oh, brother, this guy has some nerve, and he's so rude why he hasn't even shown any gratitude." She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look back at that seaving ingrate. She boarded the plane and sat in her seat, then sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached into her baggage, she gasped with surprise. There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes. If mine are here she moaned with despair, then the others were his and he tried to share. We late to apologize, she realized with grief that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief. Our theme this year has been transformation, and we need to have been transformed through all our study, our time reflecting on the cross, reflecting as Charles talked about, we need to have the heart of a child, and realizing that we need to be transformed. Not only one time in our life, but God calls us to be transformed over and over. You know, the most powerful way of transformation that I find, you can be transformed in an instant when you go from thinking selfishly and ungrateful to reflecting on what good things are going on and having a spirit of gratitude. So the title of today's lesson is transformed by gratitude. Let's look at Psalm 106, open if your Bible is a Psalm 106. You see, we are the only culture that's struggled with gratitude. We are the only people that have difficulty remembering all the good things. And in Psalm 106, we have one of the psalmist here, reflecting on the history of the Israelite nation. And I want to read not all of it, but the pieces of it, so turn to me with me to that psalm. I want you to see there in verse 1, he says, "Praise the Lord," Psalm 106, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever, who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord, or fully declare his praise, blessed so they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them, that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise." Then he says, "We have sinned, even as our fathers did, we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles." They did not remember your kindnesses, and they rebelled by the Red Sea. Let's get down to verse 12, "Then they believed his promises in saying his praise, but they soon forgot what he had done, and did not wait for his counsel." In the desert, they gave into their craving. In the wasteland, they put God to the test. In verse 16, it says, "In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord." Let's get down to verse 20, it says, "They exchanged their glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea." Verse 24, "Then they despised the pleasant land. They did not believe his promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord." And down at the end, verse 47, "Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting." Let all the people say, "Amen praise the Lord." The history of the Israelite nation brought a grand rescue, brought out of Egypt, and God saved them by miracles, you know, the plague, the land, the plague of darkness, you know, demonstrating the difference between light and dark, showing the distinction and how he's blessing the Israelites, saving them out, you know, between the walls of the waters of the Red Sea and how they walk through it, safe, and yet, you know, their enemies, the sin of the past, was washed away, then they went on into the desert, and not long after that, they began to grumble and complain and forget all the good things God had done. You know, God provided them food and man and sustenance, and yet they longed to go back because they didn't have all the things they wanted at that moment. They got too used to what they'd had. They got too used to the food, to the quail and to the manna that God provided, and this I didn't know. We wanted, we want the stuff we used to have. All it tasted so good, if only I had that. They put God to the test over and over, and even in their ingratitude, Moses was sparked to anger and wouldn't himself fully obey God instead of speaking to the rock, he struck the rock we find, and God saw that, wow, that nation that he had poured his life out, done miraculous things to save them, could turn back very easily. Even the most humble man on the face of the earth is what Moses was called by God. Even he could give him to sin, resulting from other people's ingratitude. If you made a list of the top five sins that plagued you, maybe you made a list of the top five sins that just hurt our culture, would ingratitude be on that list. Let's look over in the New Testament, Romans chapter one. In Romans chapter one, we find, we move forward thousands of years here, and we find in the time of the Roman Empire, which is not unlike our time, God talking about the situation of the human race, and he says in verse 18 of Romans chapter one, Romans one verse 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened, although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over, in the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised they men, because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts, even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, in the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women, and were inflaming with lust for one another, men committed indecent acts with other men, and received themselves the dupe penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done, they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity, they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful, they invent ways of doing evil, they disobey their parents, they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things as are dead, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. What was the origin of the downfall of the human race? What was the origin of the depravity of the mind? What was the origin of the longing for some kind of gratification that was unnatural and falling into a kind of sexual perversion and depravity that's just destroyed? We know that was part of the destruction of the Roman Empire, and I dare say will be the destruction of our culture as well. The invented ways of doing evil, the origin of which, in gratitude, they neither glorify God as God nor gave thanks to him. In gratitude is a terrible, terrible sin, and we got to recognize this and see it for what it is. It's a precursor to damaging and destroying our very lives, our families, it can destroy any fun vacation you've got planned. It can destroy a nice dinner with family. In gratitude. It's easy to get caught up in it, isn't it? You know, even in families, sometimes parents, we become ungrateful for our kids and complain about them. Sometimes brothers and sisters and families complain about each other, right? Annoying each other. Sometimes children, the kids begin to complain about their parents thinking only of what they don't have, what they don't get, what their parents aren't doing right, forgetting that their very existence is because they were fed and nurtured and taken care of and trained and taught and loved when they could give nothing back. You know, I think about how our natures are to be complaining and grumbling about the greatest things in our life, sadly. I think about my own kids and they love each other a ton, but you know, more than one occasion they complain about how they annoy each other. Man, my sister annoys me, man, my brother annoys me. And yet one time at church when Caitlin was only like three years old, this is what we used to meet at Rancho High School, she was left at church accidentally through a miscommunication through mom and dad. Yeah. At the time, you know, meeting at Rancho, that was a nice blessing because we all live about a half a mile from Rancho High School. But as soon as we got home and we realized Caitlin's not with you, no, she's not with me, Kyle opens the door, bursts out and starts sprinting down the street. He was probably like seven at the time. And though his sister annoyed him when it came to really facing the reality of what was him precious to him, man, his sister was important to him. How are you doing with your circumstances in your life and the way you feel about the basic things that are already going on in your life? Are you grateful? Are you truly grateful? How do you handle situations when they don't go the way you want? There's a story about a little guy named Jamie Scott. Jamie was trying out for a part in a school play. His mother told me that he had his heart set on being in this play and she feared he would not be chosen. On the day the parts were announced, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, his mom, his eyes shining with pride and excitement. Guess what, mom? Guess what? He shouted. And then he said those words that remain a lesson to me. I've been chosen to clap and cheer during the play. His perspective was one of gratitude for the role that he had been given, that he was going to be given something to do. He was going to have a part to play. He was grateful. How are we doing on our gratitude? How is our overall attitude? How we feel about our work in the ministry? How we feel about our current job? How we feel about our current boss? How we feel about our family, our brothers, our sisters, our mom, our dad, where are you really at? In gratitude will destroy our own personal life, the life is connected to us and will destroy a ministry and will destroy a city. We need to cultivate a gratitude within us. How do we do that? Right? And that the question, we need to be grateful. They neither gave thanks to God nor glorified him as God, and that began the downfall of the life. So how do we cultivate a gratitude? What is needed to really develop gratitude? Now, two basic charges for you. Two ways to cultivate gratitude, and the first is this, we need to learn to say thank you. It's been said that it's better to say thank you and not mean it than mean it and not say it. We need to learn to say thank you and cultivate a culture of gratitude in our hearts by speaking the words. You know, there's a story about a teacher who wanted to demonstrate the impact that we could have by sharing gratitude and appreciation for other people, and she did an experiment in her class where she told the students to go out and she gave each one three blue ribbons. And with those three blue ribbons, they were to go to somebody and express appreciation for them. Tell them thanks for something they had done and given the ribbons to hey, you're valuable to me. So one of the students in the class, it was a junior high school class, he went to a local executive that he had talked to about a career planning class that he was doing, and he gave him the ribbon and said thank you for helping me with my career planning class, I really appreciated your help. Well that executive was willing to let the blue ribbon put on him and then the student said I have two more ribbons, will you please pass them along to someone else? So the executive goes okay, sure I'll do it for you. And he thought about his grouchy boss, the owner of the company, he thought I'm going to give it to him, cheer him up a little bit, he's grouchy. So he goes on in and he asks this boss, would you mind, one of the students that my son knows from school gave me this ribbon and he asked me to pass on another ribbon for someone that I appreciate. And you know I do appreciate the creative genius that you have in running the company, I appreciate that. So you wear the ribbon and the boss surprise and goes yeah sure I'll wear it, thank you, appreciate that. And then he goes and you know I have another ribbon that I would like for you to, if you wouldn't mind, they've asked us to pass this out as well and they're doing a little experiment to see how this could affect people. So if you wouldn't mind passing along as well and he goes I, you know, begrudging and he's like sure I'll do it. And so he gave him the other ribbon and so the owner of the company on his way home was thinking about who he's going to give it to and he thought you know I'm going to give it to my son. I haven't, you know, really encouraged him very much, I haven't seen him much, he's working so many hours. So he pulls on into the driveway and goes on upstairs to see his son doing his homework and he says son, you know, I haven't talked to you a whole lot lately, I've been working so many hours but I was given this blue ribbon and that one of my employees told me he really appreciated my creative genius, can you believe that, he appreciated me and I started thinking I really appreciate you and I know I don't tell you enough, I really love you and I appreciate you and you're a great son, I appreciate the time that we do get when we get it and I want you to know I really value you and give him the ribbon and the son started sobbing, started crying just tears pouring out his eyes and he said dad I can't believe you're doing this right now. I've been making preparations that tomorrow I was going to end my life because I felt like mom or you and no one really cared about my life and I realize now that's not true. We underestimate the power of just saying thank you and the ripple effect it can have on the lives of people. You know the scriptures teach in 1 Thessalonians 5-18 that we've got to give thanks in all circumstances, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus in all circumstances, whatever circumstances going on in your life, can you really give thanks, can you be grateful and express gratitude to the people around you, can you be grateful and say thank you out loud to God regularly, are you willing to say I'm grateful in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon, when you wake up in the morning you say thank you for a new day, when you go to bed and I'm thanking God in your mind for all the good things he's done for your life, can you say thank you every day out loud to other people, you know there's a story about a guy, I read a story about a guy who built this, he's a wealthy guy, built a beautiful home in the mountains, he was out in Colorado and he built this beautiful like ski resort home, was like his cabin and he and his family were up there visiting and that particular day they were, he was out skiing and his wife and son were visiting another friend's cabin down the hill some distance, well what happened was a storm came in and an avalanche was started on the hill and the avalanche was so severe that it tumbled down the hill and totally wiped out his entire house, his entire cabin, he just got them built in it, wiped it out, demolished it completely and he was safe and you know later he had found out from a friend what had happened with his wife and son and he had been worried, you know he didn't find this out right away but he was complaining in his heart, I can't believe this happened, I just built this home, it's incredible I just built it, why would this happen, why would God allow this to happen and he comes to find out that his wife and son were driving back up to the cabin and when they were driving back up to the cabin this other friend of theirs was driving down the hillside and because of the storm the car slid out and it ended up blocking the road on the way up to the cabin, so the wife and the son of this one man who owned the cabin had to stop and help this other friend with their car and they really couldn't get it out, ended up called the ski patrol and the city you know police department did get their car out of the snow and so they never made it up to the cabin and later the man who owned the cabin realized you know if that accident hadn't happened with my wife they would have been in the cabin with the avalanche hit and he was wow I was so engraved I couldn't believe why would this happen to me and yet God somehow arranged circumstances in such a way that my son and my wife actually lived and I didn't even realize it, are you grateful in all circumstances? We don't always see the big picture of what's going on in our life, we can't see the whole picture. Do you trust the sovereignty of God that God really is working? He says give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ. What's God's will for you to be grateful all the time? No grateful person is unhappy. You got to get grateful by saying thank you over and over and over Colossians chapter three you read in the text over and over the in the in the scriptures that we need to give thanks over a hundred times talk about giving thanks being grateful we finally Colossians chapter three verse 15 let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace and be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing songs hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God and whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the father through him you know it's not until we we think we're going to lose something that we really get grateful right it's not until we realize something was close to being taken away from us that we get grateful you know in our family this past week we found out that carries nephew Kyle's first cousin Paul has leukemia and you know his family they own a little business and I was talking to his father my brother-in-law Paul and he said Steve nothing else matters I'm putting everything on hold nothing else matters that my son being well and prior to that he could have listed off a to-do list a list of struggles and difficulties and concerns with his business that would make him feel discouraged or depressed or wondering what's going on and he realized none of that matters at all every one of us in here needs to take a good look at are we really grateful for our family are we grateful for our life are we grateful for our our mission in life our purpose in life what we get to do with our life can you make a gratitude list and how long would it be how long would your gratitude list be can you make a thousand thing gratitude list I think you can if you listed off every member in here we'd be about 450 right yeah at the desert cities we'd be like over 600 that's 600 people to be grateful for who've chosen to say Jesus is Lord you know today we're going to have a believe a teen and a campus girl baptized into Christ amen really excited about that we're going to be we're going to be getting a new sister we're going to be getting new people in our family regularly are we really grateful for that do we forget do you remember how lost you used to be do you remember how it felt to have a narrow view point of what life was like I remember driving home from my job as a stock broker driving down the beach road in Manhattan Beach and I remember just thinking how short term my perspective in life was I rarely thought much about the coming weekend or the new thing I was going to buy or the new club I was going to go to or the new girl that I wanted to try to date and I remember constantly having an aching feeling of anxiousness and wonder about my life is my life really on track am I doing what's right and I always felt empty a lot of times in the the holiday season came a deep feeling of like what what is life all about would come over me I remember how it felt to live in the darkness you remember how it felt to live in darkness and then I remember how good it felt for God to come down and say okay here's some men were sent to my life they pulled me out of the darkness they taught me the word of God they showed me a purpose for my life they pulled me out of the sin and the wreck of my life they taught me why my life you know had meaning I finally found the one thing worth my very best that was living to the glory of God to honor him to speak about him to help other people become disciples of his I remember that first Christmas as a disciple remember I was dead broke I remember you know my life really wasn't going great on the outside I had challenges you know always a young guy started a career but I had no money at all I remember I had to write cards all my family and friends that Christmas you know I couldn't buy anybody a thing but I also remember how grateful I was to be holy to them pure to be with people who love God to be singing I never sang before I mean I'm going to midweek some singing I'm singing songs and just enjoying worship enjoying wholesomeness enjoying being wholesome being pure over the holidays I felt so good do you remember are you grateful for being pulled out of the darkness we got to say thank you to God but you know what else we got to say thank you to people looking philemon chapter one verse four philemon one verse four I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers right Paul was riding here and he says I always thank my God as I remember you he's telling God how grateful for he is for philemon he's telling him how grateful he is for the people in his life when you pray do you just list off the names of the people that you're grateful for and can you list a whole series of things about the people that you're grateful for how easy is that for you to do I wrote down a couple and it's a privilege to get to speak publicly because then I can encourage those I love publicly I wrote down for care I just wrote it took me five minutes to write down ten things for the people that are near me I wrote down about Carey I'm grateful for her love for God her love for me her beauty her cooking her hard work her love for fun she's a great mother she's a great servant she has great wisdom about Kyle I wrote he's obedient respectful loving he loves sports loves to pray he's a UCLA fan he's a great athlete a great student a great friend and he loves his sister about Mike I wrote he's loyal serious devoted he's a great cook and I get to enjoy that over the holidays he's a great preacher he has crazy stories he likes guns and I'm a guy I like gun stuff I like man stuff he likes adventure and he's bold I wrote about Doug he's a best friend he's funny he's wise is a great minister he was the best man of my wedding he also is a UCLA fan which is very wise of him heart for the underdog he expects God others to honor God he loves have fun and I wrote down he's not here I was gonna make fun of him I'm grateful that I'm better looking than Doug about Jake I wrote that he's passionate committed a great shepherd loves people a great athlete a great musician he's my right hand man he's very real and open he lasts a lot and he's thoughtful and I could go on about so many of you over and over and over how easy is it for you to express gratitude to the people that are near you and do you do it we say thank you to cultivate a gratitude which can cure the ills within our family the ills within our ministry and the ills within the whole world you know last thing I want us to say is this not only do we have to say thank you but we got to express gratitude in action we got to express gratitude in action you know in Leviticus chapter 22 verse 29 we find that God is commanding actually for the Israelites to be grateful he says when you sacrifice a thank offering when you not if you when you you're supposed to do that God understood that's how you stay strong spiritually that's how you you grow in life that's how you avoid all the depraved thinking of our culture when you offer a thank offering to the Lord sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf do your best give it your all don't sacrifice blemish animals and I think about so many inspirational examples of people expressing gratitude in action I think about one of the team sisters in here he realizes that next week is our hope day of giving where we're going to meet the needs of the of the poor through our work with hope we're why we're going to give specifically to hope we're going to also give our weekly offering which goes to the work of building the spiritual ministry but we're going to give a special offering next week to hope and you know one of the sisters in our ministry one of the teen girls decided I want to make a difference in my school so she gets a little a can she decorates it and she goes into her class and she just passes her and explains what hope worldwide does how they help people how they meet the needs of orphans how they've how they've built hospitals how they really serve and make a difference and even as a congregation we are all volunteers on our big hope day for hope worldwide and she passed it around her classroom and she got the goal for every member of the church that hope was asking for is fifty two dollars a person to donate to hope worldwide she got it that one day writing class that was Natalie Mardigan and that awesome she did that express gratitude in action I appreciate the disciples in here so many of you serve in so many ways I I want you to know you know the staff we are so grateful so grateful for all the hard work you know most ministries the worship teams they expect to get paid and I hope our spending you know I've never heard that they don't trust me they all make plenty but you know here's the thing they do all this for free all the things they do they're not they do it why they want to serve God and a lot of churches worship teams you got a budget that you're gonna pay that worship team they're not coming to worship God and unless they get paid you know what's really exciting they all donate all their time hours and hours and hours of giving their gifts in talent and they do such a tremendous job thank you so much thank you so much you know I think about those that volunteered to take on the work of a hope worldwide you know I'm in January we do our annual hope day and I had a great meeting the other day with Brian and Adrian and Bill and I know John Nelson's in there and Mary Duantano did it last year coordinated the hope day she's volunteering and I appreciate these men and these women saying you know what we want to step up and make a difference and express our gratitude to God for what he's done in my life by giving back and that's what Christians do you know as a church we do a lot of great things and we got to continue to pour ourselves out to meeting the needs of people with no expectation amen we got to be willing to do whatever it takes to change lives you know there's a story about a guy named Robert Devin Senzo he was a great Argentine golfer listen to this he wants one a tournament and after receiving the check and smiling for the cameras he went to the clubhouse and prepared to leave sometime later he walked alone to his car in the parking lot and was approached by a young woman she congratulated him on his victory and then told him that her child was seriously ill ill and near death she did not know how she could pay the doctor's bill and hospital expenses and he was likely going to die. Devin Senzo was touched by her story he took out a pen and endorsed his winning check for payment to the woman makes some good days for the baby he said as he pressed the check in her hand the next week he was having lunch in the country club when a professional golf association official came to his table some of the boys in the parking lot last week told me you met a young woman there after you won that tournament. Devin Senzo not had yes that's true well said the official I have news for you she's a phony she has no sick baby she's not even married she fleeched you my friend you mean there is no baby who is dying she said Devin Senzo that's right said the official that's the best news I've heard all week you can't substitute for gratitude and expressing gratitude doesn't matter what's going on when you are giving and carrying and making a difference it changes you you know each of us can make a difference and there's a ripple effect that you can't even comprehend you got to be willing to express it not just with words that thank you but in action in action in ways of giving in serving and being a part of something bigger than yourself I heard another story and we'll close with this it's a story about a teacher and it was written in a Thanksgiving Day editorial in the newspaper and it told of this school teacher who asked her class a first graders to draw a picture of something they were thankful for she thought of how little these children from poor neighborhoods actually had to be thankful for but she knew that most of them would draw pictures of turkeys or tables with food the teacher was taken aback with the picture that Douglas handed in a simple childlessly drawn hand but whose hand the class was captivated by the abstract image of the hand I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food said one child another one said a farmer another said it's because the farmer grows the turkeys finally when the others were at work the teacher bent over Douglas's desk and asked whose hand it was it's your hand teacher he mumbled she recalled that frequently at recess she had taken Douglas a scrubby forlorn child by the hand she often did that with the children but it meant so much to little Douglas perhaps this was everyone's Thanksgiving not for the material things given to us but for the chance in whatever small way to give to others to express gratitude in action and we need gratitude it can transform all of us needs to permeate our lives needs to come out of us all the time as we embark upon the week of Thanksgiving let's not fall prey to the ingratitude that so easily comes our way when we don't get what we want but let us give thanks in all circumstances to God to people and in action let's be a congregation of grateful people amen [applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Steve Lounsbury.