Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Ten Reasons You Should Be Thankful with Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Discover 10 Biblical Reasons for Gratitude | Christian Thanksgiving MessageExplore deep Biblical insights on gratitude with pastors Johnny and Hank as they unpack God's sovereignty, forgiveness, love, and more. Learn why thankfulness isn't just for Thanksgiving, but a core Christian discipline. Perfect for believers seeking to cultivate gratitude in all seasons.Key Topics:God's sovereignty and controlBiblical forgiveness and graceThe power of God's loveScripture's role in gratitudeChristian communityHeaven's promiseDivine provision📖 Based on: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Romans 1, Colossians 3:16Watch VideosVisit the Website Buy Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. Two things before we jump into this episode. First of all, I want to thank you for sharing my book, Consider the Lilies, finding perfect peace in the character of God with your friends and family. I've been so grateful to see how the book has comforted and encouraged the anxious and fearful to find peace in the character of God. Again, thank you. Secondly, we have some new Dial In merchandise that will be available to you in the coming weeks.

I'm excited to show you guys photos in the weeks ahead. Well, in this episode, we look at the subject of Thanksgiving. We are in the middle of a Thanksgiving holiday, and the Bible gives us an imperative command. Rejoice always, in everything give thanks. And then it says, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus, meaning that God's will for your life doesn't need to be found. It needs to be obeyed. And in this episode, we're going to look at not only the command to be thankful, but all of the different reasons why we ought to be thankful. Well, without further ado. Welcome to the Dial-In Ministries podcast. I'm here with Hank.

I'm actually using your new Bible. I'm noticing that, well, I don't know how new it is, but I'm noticing a lot of the pages are stuck together, which makes me concerned if you're a true man of the word. Johnny, don't lie. You're seeing all kinds of notes all over the place in there. You're overwhelmed with the ink. Let me just put it to you this way. John three is still stuck to John four. That's not true. You preached on that. I use that. Getting a little concerned. Well, we're here today, Hank, and we're going to talk about the subject of gratitude and thankfulness. This is an important topic, regardless of the season that we find ourselves in, but particularly because of this Thanksgiving holiday

we're going to look at next week. Yeah, absolutely. I will mention it's, I know it's the holiday season because walking in this morning, I mean, it's the first time that I'm freezing as I walk outside my house. It is cold. It is, it is cold.

Now regarding gratitude, there's so many different places in the scripture that we could look, but it's very helpful to just even the idea that 1 Thessalonians 5, 6 has rejoice, always, uh, pray without ceasing and everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. We've talked about this before, but when anybody ever asks what's God's will for my life, one of the first things we need to recognize is God's will for your life. Doesn't need to be found. It needs to be obeyed. It's

explicit in the Bible. It says in everything in Ponte, in the Greek, in everything, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Now, what we're going to observe in this episode is that gratitude, thanksgiving is Christianity 101. One of the monitors and the measures of your maturity as a Christian is the degree in which you can say, by God's spirit and God's strength, I'm a thankful, grateful person. Now, even as we talk through this holiday season of Thanksgiving, that's 160 years old, but Thanksgiving is not a cultural construct. It's a biblical construct. And I want to talk about that more. And we're going to provide the reasons for why we should be thankful and maybe the fruit of being thankful and then different hindrances to gratitude as well. But before we do so, I want to just mention

some of the distinguishing marks of an unbeliever are that you're not thankful. You know, like when you think of an unbeliever, you know, Romans 1 says they did not honor or give thanks to God. That's the sign of a perverse culture. In 2 Timothy 3, it says in the last days, they're going to be murderers, lovers of self. They're going to be ungrateful, meaning right smack dab in the middle of perverse sexuality, haters of good, brutal is just ungrateful. Now, when you think of a jock, what do you think of? Picturing a gentleman over the size of six foot, maybe in a letterman's jacket. What's wrong with being five foot, 11 and a half? And also, I shouldn't say, a jock could be a female in some cases. But yeah, I have a mental picture in my mind. You have an

idea in mind. If I said an 80s rocker, what do you have in mind? We got Hair Nation, baby. Hair Nation. Black leather jacket, lots of hair. And if I say, what do you think of when I say Chicago person? Chicago person? Chicago man. Well, I mean. What do they refer to their drink as, soda or pop?

Pop. Pop, because they're Christians. Now, in any event, those maybe descriptions of what they wear or the way they talk, you know, I remember moving from Chicago to California saying, hey, do you have pop? And they said, do you mean soda? It betrays where we're from, who we are. And that's the reality as we approach the subject of thankfulness. It is the main distinguisher and delineation between someone that's an unbeliever and the believer. Now you might even say, well, someone might say, I know a lot of unbelievers that are thankful,

but the distinction there would be they, their gratitude doesn't find its terminus in the giver of the good gift. They're thankful for the meal, but they don't know the creator of the meal. They might thank the chef, but they don't thank the creator of the meal. They might think the chef, but they don't think the creator of the universe. And so that's the issue. But I, I think just, you know, I want you to jump in, but I want to provide 10 reasons why we should be grateful, be thankful this season, even if you're walking through a trial, even if maybe you're walking through a difficulty or whatever it may be, but anything to add before we jump in. No, I mean, it just strikes me as you're speaking, raising little kids, and I know you're raising young daughters as well, our three-year-old needs to be trained to say thank you.

I think you like to say, I mean, it's very natural for him to say me, mine, or I want it. Not very natural, kind of out of his three-year-old vernacular to be saying thank you, mom, or thank you, dad, for this. So it's, as we think about kind of the natural inclinations of humanity, and I think also maybe biblically, I'm thinking of the parable of Jesus, obviously with the 10 lepers. So maybe dive in. I think you've said in the past, God commands us to be grateful, but it's beyond that. It's actually God provides us with many reasons to be grateful so maybe yeah pick it

up with us why are maybe some reasons to be grateful yeah and i'll give those reasons and just even going off of what you're saying regarding the command because even though gratitude is the logical response of the redeemed there is still as long as we are in the flesh this gravitational pull towards discontentment and ungratefulness and so so that's why Paul says in Colossians 2, therefore, as you have received Christ, it says Christ Jesus Lord, so walk in him. It says, having been firmly rooted and being built up in him and established in your faith,

just as you were instructed, just as you've received Christ Jesus, be built up in him. And then it says, overflowing with gratitude. That's the same word as to gush with gratitude. So yes, God has done a great work in your life. And even if you've received Jesus Christ into your life, there's still this imperative to be overfilling, overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 3 16, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom

and teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to him through the father. So every single thing you do every single day at every single moment is to be done with a level of gratitude. This is actually the purpose for which God redeems us in the first place. In 2 Corinthians 4.15, for all things are for your sake, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Which means if you're looking for the reason why God saved you, you would be correct in saying,

he saved me so that it would rebound my gratitude back to him. And you would say, well, I thought God is, he saved me for his glory. Yeah. And the way he is glorified is through the gratitude of the redeemed. And so this is an imperative command, but here are 10 reasons and interject as we go for why we should be grateful. The first of which is the sovereignty of God.

We've talked about this before, but God's sovereignty is necessary for any of his other attributes to have any meaning to us. Meaning that if God loves us, but he's not sovereign, what value does his love bring? If he's good, but he's unable to carry out his goodness because his hands are tied and his feet are bound as it relates to even his wisdom, what good would his goodness or his wisdom be? So God's sovereignty means that he's not only in control of every king and over every kingdom, but over your life. And so whether it's a sparrow that dies in Matthew 11, or the tire that pops on your way to work, or the CEO that is out to get you, or the ACL that tears and your scholarship goes away. Everything in your life is under the sovereign orchestration of God.

And you will find great difficulty in resting in God's love if you don't also know that he is the sovereign king over all things. I was even thinking about this regarding the providence of God. The Heidelberg Catechism was written some 400 years ago.

They do these question and answers where they were teaching the next generation to be able to memorize the truth. And in the realm of God's sovereignty, the Heidelberg Catechism question and answer 27, they asked the question, and I want you just to imagine teaching your three-year-old to respond, but they say, by what do you understand the providence of God? How do you understand the providence of God? How do you understand the providence of God? And the answer that little kids were called to memorize is the almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures. And so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink,

health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things in fact, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. And if you don't believe that, you're going to have a great challenge in rejoicing. That's why Jonathan Edwards used to say that every leaf that falls to the ground is working together for my good. And so maybe if you're experiencing a season of triumph or trouble and anything in between, it's just the fact that God is not only upholding the stars by the word of his power in the universe in Hebrews 1.3, he also has numbered your days, knows every hair on your head, and is both the sovereign king and the loving father that cares for you, is in control of your life. And so I think it's just so important to almost double click on the reality of it's not only God's sovereign over the good things happening in our life, but everything, all the bad things, everything in between. We serve an almighty God who brings about everything in our life for our good.

But it's such a high and lofty thought. Sometimes it's helpful to high and lofty thought. Sometimes it's helpful to build on what else about God or what are concrete examples of things I can hold on to, other reasons to be thankful for or other evidences. Yeah. Yeah. Another reason to rejoice, this is 10 reasons to rejoice. The first of which is God's sovereignty. The second of all would be that God forgives us. And sometimes there's even like a roll of the eyes, you know, of Christians, you know, yeah, of course, God forgives me of my sin. Yeah, that would be one. But no, if God has forgiven you of your sin, it means that your

greatest need in life has already been met, which, you know, when Paul says he's, you know, all your, he provides everything in Christ Jesus. Sometimes we diminish the seriousness of our sin, which causes us to diminish the wonder of God's grace. And so when we're looking for something to be grateful for, we're grasping at straws because maybe what's right in front of us in the word of God has been so obscured because we don't make much of God's forgiveness. But Ephesians 1.7 says, in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. In Psalm 103, it says that he removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. For me personally, I'm so grateful that God forgives.

And he says, I will remember your sins no more in Isaiah. I'm so thankful in 1 John 1, 9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. And not just to forgive us of our sin, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Because on the cross, Jesus not only bore our sin, he also bore our shame. And so that would be a big one because we're no longer a slave to sin if we're a Christian. We've been forgiven by God. So that would be the second one.

And all of that goes in light of the third, which would be, I'm thankful for the love of God, you know, over and over, you know, again, and throughout the Bible, you know, the Bible is a declared or God's love is a declared reality. I have loved you says the Lord, I have loved you. But it's also, Paul says in Romans 5, 8, a demonstrated reality, meaning that when we're talking about the love of God, we're not pontificating and, you know, it's not a bunch of theologians. Yeah, it's not some people like sitting down outside with their gun check, gun club blazers. You know, they're cool. I was picturing people in togas and you took me to a totally different place.

I'm thinking of Ivy League professors. Tweed. And togas. Tweed. Yeah, it's not an intellectual ascent. Yeah, just saying like when we're talking about the love of God, yeah, it's, it's a doctrine we affirm, but it's a reality we experience. I was reading the story of Gary Gayati.

He was the third baseman for the twins in the 1987 world series. And he thought that was the peak of his life and fame and fortune. But then he writes this, this is the third basement of the 1987 minnesota twins he says then in 1988 the year after this he said i came to know jesus christ as my personal savior and lord of my life believe me friend the world series was great but nothing compares to the thrill keyword there of having a personal relationship with god through jesus christ and knowing that you have your name written in the record books of eternal everlasting life. And all of that is a fruit obviously of the love of God. Um, you know, even every holiday season, every day in particular, we're seeking to be satisfied by

something. And there's a reason why Moses prays, satisfy me in the morning with your loving kindness that we may be glad all your days. But if you're not being satisfied there, you're going to find insecurity. You're going to find discontentment in this holiday season. You compare your life to other people, but God's love would be a big one. The fourth would be God's word. You can't know about God's sovereignty. You can't know about God's forgiveness. You can't know about God's love unless you're rooted in God's word. You know, I'm, I'm holding here your genuine calfskin, uh, new Bible. And every time I think

about that, I am reminded of Jan Hus, William Tyndale, um, John Rogers, the men that were burnt at the stake in order to provide what we're holding in our hands. I mean, I can't even tell you how many Bibles I have in the English language, obviously. But those men died translating the word of God so that we would have it. So I'm thankful for that. Even, you know, regarding what we're opening, you know, we call it the word of God and you will, you will very, you know, when I'm preaching, I probably more routinely use that term, the word of God, rather than open your Bibles. You know, I might say at the beginning, because I want people to get a sense of every time this book is opened, it's God speaking. And Paul says that in first Thessalonians two, three, he says, we also thank God continually for when you, when you receive the word of

God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. Peter answered to Jesus, you know, in John 6, I was preaching through this recently. You heard it when Jesus looks at them and says, are you going to leave also? And Peter says, you know, where else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. And so I've referenced the story before. Maybe you remember that when I went to northern Kenya that one time, every time a cow dies, they rip it open and they search through the intestines. And they were explaining to me and I asked them, why do they do this?

And they said, because they believe a couple thousand years ago, one of these cows ate the words of God. And they're desperate. They're searching and they're seeking, going like, hey, we think it's going to show up one of these days. Because there is a desperation of hearing God speak. And we get to hear God speak. And often to our own embarrassment at times, you know, we neglect the precious resource we have in His Word. Treat it so lightly. And it strikes me that it's just twofold. One, like the gratitude we should have for God's provision and preserving His word over time. But then also the dual nature of when we actually open up our Bibles, we're reminded, we're stirred up.

Often you'll comment on in Psalms, like as David's writing the Psalms, he's stirring up his own affection. He's shifting perspective. And it's so easy to get caught in kind of the horizontal day-to-day living. And yet when we read our word, our chins are kind of pushed back up to consider God, his sovereignty, his love, his forgiveness. And it stirs in us affection that isn't our own. It generates from the Holy Spirit. Yeah, it is a perspective alignment because we need to be grounded in God's word so that we have the proper fodder for thanksgiving. The next, you know, reason to rejoice would be the people of God. You know, you started to mention some of the attributes of God, his sovereignty, his forgiveness, his love, his word, and that

he speaks to us. The next one would be just God's people. You know, I'm so thankful even as I'm a pastor. But if you're a Christian in general, you ought to be able to say, I'm thankful for the people of God. And this is just a theme from Scripture. Paul says in Ephesians 1.16, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Meaning Paul said, I am relentlessly thanking God for the people of God.

1 Thessalonians 1.2, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Philemon 1.4, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers. Philippians 1.3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. 1 Corinthians 1.4, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you in Christ. Romans 1.8, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. Listen, I think if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that's wonderful. But it's not an exclusive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been united not only to God through his son, Jesus Christ, you've been united to one another. And I mean, maybe you can speak to this, but when you go through even trial and trouble in

your life, you end up leaving thankful, not only for God himself, but for the people of God who help you walk through the trials you're in. Yeah, absolutely. We're looking at this in youth group right now, but the unveiling of the early church in Acts, and it just strikes me how much it constantly returns to, they had fellowship together, they had fellowship together, they gathered together, they prayed, they lift their voices with thanksgiving, and then they went out with power. And that there's this communal charging up that consistently is taking place throughout scripture. And today it's so easy to get isolated and kind of an insular social media self-focused culture. And yet everyone is so lonely.

And we've talked about it in previous episodes, but meant to live in community. So keep going. I don't mean to. No. And I think, yeah, maybe one other thing to talk about, just even while you're mentioning, you know, Acts 2 42, they were continually doing that. One of the ways, the reasons why we should be thankful for God's people is we receive different elements of God's character through his people.

For example, Paul says in Corinthians that blessed be the God of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction so that we too may comfort others with the comfort with which we have received. Meaning that when you walk through a trial, God comforts you. And part of the reason he comforts you is so that you can comfort me when I walk through difficulty, knowing that you once received comfort from God. And now that becomes this force amongst God's people, not in a mystical sense, but a power where God's people are being supernaturally comforted by each other because they've been mutually comforted by their God. And it's both ways. It makes me think about a few episodes ago, you mentioned, we were talking about anxiety. Your dad would often say something to the effect of when you're feeling anxious or lonely or alone, put on your apron and go serve. And part of that is to actually serve the other believers, the other people in your community.

But how often it actually stirs up in yourself all the things you have to be grateful for as you get out in community and you see the things God's provided with you that you're blind to in the moment. Yeah, no, it's so good. I, I think, uh, to move on that the, the next one that I would say a reason to rejoice, this is six is the promise of heaven. Uh, Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so I wouldn't have told you. I always love that line because it's so obvious, you know, Jesus says, I'm going to prepare a place, guys. If this wasn't the case, I want to tell you. Like, I just imagine Jesus saying, I don't lie. Well, he literally, God cannot lie, it says in Titus. But I'm thankful for that because even Paul, you know, you think about Paul.

I always, I probably mentioned it here, but if you're going to bring Paul to speak at a conference, you get this little guy that hobbled up there that's blind, unrecognizable by the people that knew him 30 years before because he's been beaten so many times, shipwrecked, lashed, destroyed. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 16 and 17, that everything he went through, all the beatings, the stonings, he says his light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look to, not to the things that we see, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. That just means they're temporary. It's, it's fleeing away, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Paul is constantly rooting his thinking. Um, and I think when you meet Paul,

if you were going to talk about the apostle Paul, you would say, man, that is a grateful guy. He begins every letter by saying, I do not stop thanking God for you all. I've actually, I'm trying to think about it. Maybe it's cause for concern. How often do people, you know, come up to you and say, you know what, I've been praying for you. What have you been praying for? I've just been thanking God for your life. You know, sometimes people pray, like, I pray you don't do anything stupid, you know, or something like that. And you're like, well, thank you. We're grateful for those prayers as well. Thank you for that. You know, I'm praying that you, you know, be a like that. And you're like, well, thank you. We're grateful for those prayers as well. Thank you for that. You know, I'm praying that you, you know, be a good

dad and you're like, well, great. I just don't think there have been, you know, I'm just thinking that would be such a shock to my system. If someone came and said, I've been, I do not stop thanking God for you and leaving it at that. And then obviously there's more in Paul's prayer, but even if you were going to continue elsewhere in other passages, he's just reminding them of the gratitude or his gratitude is rooted in the fact that his hope is in heaven. Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven. There's this future reality I'm looking forward to in Revelation 21. He's going to wipe away every tear. He's going to invite me into his heavenly home.

I'm looking forward to that. And if you're facing loneliness, if you're walking through pain, you know, last week, I saw a man I respected and loved on his deathbed. And it was a sobering moment because you're going, man, I know the answers. But I left, he died a couple of days later. And it's going, man, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And whatever difficulty you're going through right now,

whatever blessing you might be going through, this is just, it's a vapor. And Paul's excited for the glory of heaven. And it just strikes me, I guess, maybe I'll just say my own walk, the God's faithfulness, God's forgiveness, God's, God's love, God's people. Um, as you attend a local church, there's regular reminders of that. Um, and so it doesn't, I often don't go a very long time without something prompting those in me. This is one, I feel like this is a simple one that, uh, like, are we daily reflecting on the reality of eternity and our eternal home? And it just, it totally recalibrates everything we experience here. Um, and yet it's so easy to go days and weeks without thinking about the fact that this, this is, but a brief blink of an eye

and that that reality is almost, I mean, it's almost dysregulating how heavy it is and how exciting it is to be at the prospect of being reunited with your loved ones who've left this earth and be reunited with your creator in total glory. I mean, it's so easy to just totally whiff on that reality. Well, it goes so fast. You know, you think about, about okay this upcoming holiday season i remember like it was yesterday what we were doing a year ago and max best case scenario you get 80 of those years right maybe 90. yeah but it goes like that and you're going man there is a an unknown if you

don't know the lord of like what happens after that. But, you know, Jesus telling his disciples, don't rejoice that you can cast out demons. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Yeah. Because that's all that matters. And so, but that's the eternal element. And then. That was six. Yeah.

Seven, you got this element. I thankful kind of back to this world of God's provision. In the meantime, you know, Philippians 4, 19, Paul says, my God will meet all of your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. He's going to meet your every need. Romans 8, 32 says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Those are talking about, I think, primarily spiritual realities.

He's going to meet our every need in Christ Jesus on an eternal scale. But then even on a temporal element, there's Jesus saying, and obviously I wrote about this, consider the ravens. They don't sow nor reap. Your Heavenly Father feeds them. He's going to take care of us under the banner of God's provision as well as in Psalm 28, 7, his protection. That provision is both our offense and our defense. And he takes care of us.

But maybe to someone who's unsure of a future job, unsure of, you know, kids' braces, the economy, you know, different things like that, I would just find great comfort in the fact that God has promised to me your every need in Christ Jesus. the economy, you know, different things like that. I would just find great comfort in the fact that God has promised to me your every need in Christ Jesus. And once you understand your God, once you know who your shepherd is, then and only then can you say, I shall not want. And the Bible appropriately tunes our sense of need to the tune of what God provides, because what God provides is what we actually need. And if God didn't provide it, we didn't need it because he's already promised to meet our every need in Christ. Yeah. And I also think it's so easy to just not overcomplicate it.

I mean, there's probably people listening to this who are facing real, uh, like fear around the basic provisions of life necessities and kind of the very table. Totally. And there's also probably a non insignificant cohort of people listening to this. And I would be in the category of I'm comfortable that we're going to be able to take pause, take stock and be grateful for the Lord's earthly provisions that far exceed the necessities of our life. And also just the practical provisions he's provided to the most of humanity throughout the history of people's time on this earth. That forgetfulness of the Lord's provision is actually dangerous, you know, and that's

why Jesus teaches us to pray, give us this day our daily bread, not our yearly bread, because each day is a renewed reminder of our dependence. And so, yeah, it's true. We can lose sight of that. We can kind of become self-dependent rather than God dependent. That's a topic for another episode. We got to dive into more deeply, but keep rocking and rolling. Yeah, you mentioned it, but just the faithfulness of God would be the eighth. We can just touch on this.

Whatever we've said about God and the way that he interacts with people in the past is the way that he's operating with people in the present, and it's the way that he's going to operate with people in the future because he's a faithful God. Psalm 92, it's good to sing praises to the faithfulness of God. We sing, great is thy faithfulness. There's no shadow of turning with me. The meaning, you don't get any sort of,

God's not one thing one day and another thing another day. There's a constancy, which it's comforting. Yeah. And it also just means that my standing with God is never unknown. Yeah, or in doubt. It's not in doubt because God's not, And it also just means that my standing with God is never unknown. Or in doubt. It's not in doubt because God's not, he's not saying, I love you one day.

And then the next day he's gone. He's manipulating me. Now, the ninth thing that I would say we thank God for is that he answers our prayer. You know, it's one thing to have a God who's mighty. It's another thing to have a mighty God who listens to us. He says in Isaiah, while you are still speaking i will hear you um psalm 4 3 says the lord hears when i call to him it's a simple verse but that's a profound reality when i call to god he hears and i my prayer isn't being jumbled amongst the throng of those who are approaching the throne. When I pray, it's as if I'm the only person on planet earth that's approaching the throne.

And when he hears, it's not something, you know, somebody's talking, it's attentive. Isaiah 65, that was before they call, I'll answer. Psalm 116, I love the Lord. Why? For he has heard my voice and my appeal for mercy. Romans 8, we're reminded of the great reality that we don't even know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. I'm just, we could go on about this for a long time and we'll do a future episode on this in the new year, but God answers our prayer and hears our prayer. Prayer is powerful. And you've heard me tell the story before that Mary Queen of Scots used to say regarding John

Knox, I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of 10,000 men. Why? Because prayer is not just comforting to our own souls. It's efficacious. It accomplishes things. God answers. And I think sometimes we think we pray just because it's going to get us into a contented state, which it does because it reminds us of who God is. But God answers prayer. Prayer changes things.

So I'm thankful for that. That was nine, but anything before we go? I would just say, and to state the obvious, I feel like one of my applications and just listening to this conversation is I need to pray for a grateful heart. I need to pray for a grateful spirit. And I take great comfort in knowing God is excited to answer that prayer. He hears that prayer. If we pray according to his will, he hears us. Totally. So yeah, the 10th here would just be simple profundity that God is with us. We have mentioned that we long for heaven. We're excited for heaven.

Can't wait for that day. We're going to meet him face to face. But until that day, Jesus says, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Psalm 46 says, God is our refuge and our strength and ever present help in times of trouble. He's with us. David says in Psalm 139, we've talked about this our strength and ever-present help in times of trouble. He's with us. David says in Psalm 139, we've talked about this. Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. We do long to meet Jesus face-to-face, right? That's why we sing, Lord, haste the day when our faith will be sight. The clouds are gonna be rolled back as the scroll. The trump's gonna resound.

The Lord shall descend, and we're gonna meet him. But it's not to be rolled back as the scroll. The trump's going to resound. The Lord shall descend and we're going to meet him. But it's not like we live distant lives from our God right now. He's not just near to us. He's with us. And even this week, I'm teaching Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For your rod and your staff. Well, you're with me. You got to get Psalm 23 down. I can fear no evil. Why? For your rod and your staff. Well, you're with me. You got to comfort me. Yeah. You got to get Psalm 23 down. I can't wait for Sunday. Yeah. You're going to need it. But I think I'm just, I'm thankful for that. I actually pray with my kids now, my daughters, give them a God consciousness so that they would know your nearness. Would they live life knowing that you're not a thing up there? You're a God who so that they would know your nearness. Would they live life knowing that you're

not a thing up there? You're a God who's near. And I'm, I'm more and more grateful for that. So that's 10 reasons to be thankful. And then the fruit of Thanksgiving, I think just, it's going to produce things in your life. Meaning that when we have an appropriate attitude, it changes the way we live. It's going to produce purity in our life because Ephesians 5 says, let no filthiness or silly talk even be named among you, but rather give thanks. That's in a passage on sexual immorality and sexual impurity. And it brings us to this reality when your heart and your life are so accustomed to gratitude, when you're confronted with something that you're not going to be able to thank God for, you don't participate

in it because you're giving thanks in all circumstances always. So when it's, yeah, anything in your life, you're it's you, you dispel the things you can't thank God for to peace. God, God gives peace to those who are grateful. Even mentioning, um, Philippians four or five says the Lord is near. Then it says, be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication. And everything with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. I got that one.

Let your requests be made known to God, meaning that we don't just pray, God, take away my anxiety. We've talked about that. We actually begin to thank God for his rule and his reign and his love. And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Not only does it produce purity and peace, but gratitude also produces influence. If you want to be an influencer, you have to be a grateful person. Now, why do I say that? Well, I don't say that. Paul says that he says in Philippians to do all things without grumbling or complaining that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Meaning if you want to shine as a light in the dark world, you have to do all things without grumbling and complaining because that is actually one of the, as we mentioned, the hallmarks of delineation and distinction between you and those who don't know God. The last thing would just be thankfulness produces joy because you see it in that tandem verse, rejoice always, pray without ceasing and everything, give thanks. When you're thankful, you're also joyful because you're finding your joy not in happenstance or circumstance, but in certain things that are constant, which are, again, God's love, his sovereignty, his forgiveness, the promise of heaven, things that can't be taken away. And if you're finding your joy there, then your joy is unassailable. Yeah. And it goes back to your first point that allows you to have a grateful heart amidst difficult circumstances. Yeah. Yeah.

Just finally, I think there are certain things in our life that maybe prevent us from living lives of gratitude. Yeah. I would say the circumstances would be one. It says in every circumstance, give thanks. In light of the reality that there are certain circumstances in our life that are not conducive to gratitude. So we just need to meet every adverse circumstance in our life and then go, how can I thank God for this? Even the difficulty, Romans 8, 28 can never be separated from 8, 29, that God's working this out for my good. How? Well, my good is my confirmation into the image of Jesus,

not maybe necessarily what I would want in the here and now. Another just hindrance to gratitude would be distraction. And this is maybe where we can just end, maybe one more after this. It's going to be difficult to live a life of gratitude and thanksgiving when the busyness of our life often mutes our ability to consider the character of God. We become cynical and overly critical in our fast-paced lives, but in order to contemplate and meditate on God's goodness, that takes time. I think people are so busy, they rush from one thing to one thing, and they never have time to step back and maybe just observe what God is doing, ask Him what He's trying to teach them, even in the trial they may be facing.

And then obviously, one of the main hindrances to gratitude is when I mention these realities about God's character and you doubt them. If you doubt God's love, it's going to be really hard for you to rejoice in pain, right? If you doubt God's plan for his glory and your good, how can you be, as Paul says, sorrowful yet always rejoicing? So when you don't believe those certain characteristics about God, you can pray with the man, Lord, I believe, but how my unbelief. And that's also where faith comes in.

The people of God come in because faith and thankfulness is a community project. That's why Colossians 3 says that we're doing that one to another. You can't battle for gratitude on your own. That's why the people of God, you mentioned in Acts 2.42, they're constantly coming together and encouraging one another towards living a life of thankfulness in light of who God is, His character, and His eternal plan. Well, I think that's a good place maybe to pause.

I think that's going to be one of our longer episodes. But I think especially just in this season, for those of you who are listening as we go into a thankful or a thanksgiving season it's a good time like you mentioned to pause from the distraction to reflect on who god is his character and i appreciate you having this conversation um as a tool as we consider those things to be thankful for no thanks bro yeah looking forward to more conversations