Gratitude: Part 2

All right, good morning, and happy belated Thanksgiving to you. Hopefully had a great Thanksgiving with your family, and your friends, and hopefully you kept that to like less than 10. We certainly did, we had a really intimate just the immediate family, the four of us. Great, great day together. But I do have to say this, we missed being at my mother-in-law's house like 25, 30 people. I miss the big part of and some hue-ca and tostones, and pa-ste-lios, and pastelles. All I gotta say is this, we gotta knock this virus out before Christmas, we gotta do that. So again, hope you had a really, really good Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Leroy, and I'm the campus pastor at our Cheektowaga location over in Cheektowaga, New York. And it has been really great this morning to see our Cheektowaga team, a big part of that team was already here and a great worship with Tim and everyone else, and then to have Al pray for us and then have Curtis also hosting, it's great for the Cheektowaga Takeover, and who knows, maybe we'll come take over your campus one day as well. But just really super grateful to be here. And hopefully soon we'll be back in our Cheektowaga location. So, my hope and prayer would be that should you find yourself in Cheektowaga on a Sunday morning, come on and join us, we would absolutely love to have you. Well, it's my privilege this morning to kinda wrap up the tail-end of our two-week mini series on gratitude. So, why don't we just go ahead and dive on in and continue, with what's already been a very engaging and an encouraging morning and hopefully I can kinda continue us along on that same path. We're gonna bounce around a lot in Scripture this morning, but our primary text is gonna come from 1 John Chapter Two, verses three through six. And if you're not familiar with the Bible, this is gonna be real easy to find. Just go to the back of the Bible, there'll be a book called Revelation, the last book in the Bible, and then literally, maybe you turn back five or six pages and you'll find yourself at 1 John. So, here's what we read in 1 John Chapter Two, verses three through six. "We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know that we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Whoever claims to be in him must live as Jesus did." Other translations depending upon what you were reading, might say this, "Walk in the same way which he walked. Live in the same kinda life that Jesus lived," or even, "walk as he walked." Now, that's a pretty simple statement, but man, is that loaded? Just walk as Jesus walked, just live as Jesus lived. That in and of itself, actually be a message. I could come up here and just say, "Hey folks, welcome to The Chapel. The messages for the day is walk like Jesus," and I would be done for the day. I don't think we're gonna do that, though, but that is just super, super impactful right there. So, what does that mean though? How do we live like Jesus, and in what way do we actually live like Jesus? Well, we could start by saying why don't we live our lives and be as compassionate as Jesus was? Sounds good. We also might be able to say, "How do we live our lives and love like Jesus loved?" right? Husbands, love your wife like Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her. How about, how do I live my life, and be as kind as Jesus was, demonstrate kindness like Jesus was? Or maybe even we can go as far as to say, "How do I live my life like Jesus, and be as obedient as Jesus was, or even be as faithful as Jesus was?" I mean, we are told to live like Jesus and we know Jesus lived that way, but what I would like for us to do this morning I want us to specifically spend some time walking through Scripture to see how Jesus lived his life, a life of gratitude and thankfulness. And the question that I want us to be able to answer, I'm trying to get us to a point that when we leave here this morning, wherever that may be, that we can answer this question solidly, and here's the question, how can I live with a heart postured towards gratitude and thankfulness, just like Jesus? How can I live with a heart postured towards gratitude and thankfulness, just like Jesus? Of all of those attributes, or virtues, or characteristics I just mentioned, there's one that we might be able to live like Jesus, and I think it might be gratitude. And I say might loosely because in our sin-stained marred bodies, we are imperfect. But that might be one because I could never imagine anyone saying, I know you could never say it and neither could I that I'm gonna live my life and be as obedient as Jesus I'm gonna be as faithful as Jesus. That would be great, but I don't think that I'm actually to do that. So, if we're to walk like Jesus, let's walk through some Scripture that I believe demonstrates Jesus's life of gratitude and thankfulness. And then we wanna see maybe what that looks like in our life, what happens when we actually have our heart postured towards gratitude and thankfulness? What does that actually look like? Then I wanna talk a little bit about what are some of the benefits when we live our lives that way? And if you know me, one of my gifts is to encourage and to challenge. Then I'm gonna have a challenge for you today, and that's homework that you're gonna get at the end of the message today that is due today. So, get ready for that right now. You can ask your kids who are doing all this distance learning on how to do that, but that you're gonna have an assignment today. But you see, in order to have a grateful heart, we must first start with a grateful heart for and towards God. So last week, one of the major takeaways that Pastor Jerry shared with us, it's not gonna be on the screen because it should be in your notes, if you missed it, you can catch it now but also you can go back and watch it last week. But one of the key takeaways from last week was gratitude is not just recognizing what God has given, but revering a God who would do such things. So it starts with God, a grateful posture starts with us first being grateful to and towards God. Now, if we were to just do a quick read through some Psalms, again, you won't see these on the screen, but if we were to do a quick read through Psalms, we will clearly see that we're to, in Psalm Seven, "Give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness." In Psalm 106, "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good." In Psalm 107, "Give thanks to the Lord for his deeds for mankind." Then in Psalm 107, it goes on to say, "Give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love." And we can continue, and then we get to Psalm 118 where it says, "Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever." A heart of gratitude first starts with our heart being postured and grateful for God. So, how did Jesus actually model that, how did Jesus actually model a heart that was grateful and thankful for God? Well, there are a few ways that I think Jesus did that, and we're gonna walk through some Scripture and hopefully you'll see that as well and say, "Okay well this now, how do I apply that to my life?" So one of the first things, how did Jesus model a heart of gratitude towards God? His daily provision, his daily provision to get the mission done. So, in Matthew 14 at the feeding of 5,000, this is what we read in Scripture, that taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks. And then later at the feeding of the 4,000, we read this, "Then he took the seven loaves and the fish and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, thankful for his daily provision." And even throughout the last supper, which we're gonna get to a little bit later, but even throughout the last supper, we see that Jesus again, is thanking God for his daily provision. You see, in our Western culture, I think that that's probably something that we take for granted, that the daily provision that God gives us, when we have our two, three meals a day, probably sometimes even more than those two or three meals, but at best we may give a lukewarm, "Thank you God for the provision for us." I would find it hard to believe that Jesus would ever give God a lukewarm thanks, even for something in the daily provision. And if Jesus wouldn't give a lukewarm thanks, I don't think that you and I should give a lukewarm thanks as well. We even see this in the Lord's supper, right, "Give us this day, our daily bread." So, even in that prayer there, that we're to be grateful and we're to be thankful for God's daily provision to us for us to accomplish his mission, a sincere gratitude for daily provision. Now, if you wanna talk about grateful for daily provision, I wanna share a story with you about a buddy of mine in Haiti that I visit quite often, his name is Fabi. You've probably heard this story before, some of you, but it's worth repeating because I think it's something that can be solidified in our life and in our hearts. And for those of you that haven't heard it, just kinda track along with me here. But I go to Haiti a number of times a year and haven't done this since COVID, but we're going back next year, for sure. But there was a time that we were in Haiti and Fabi and myself and a bunch of other guys went out in a canoe to do some fishing. Now, I'm talking fishing, I'm talking like string fishing, we had some string, and we had a hook. There's no Orvis rod and reel set here, right, none of that stuff, just a string and a hook. So, I get it all set up, we're out in the boat, they did this 'cause that's what I wanted to do, and we went out and I caught a fish, right, awesome. But this fish was probably maybe five inches long. Now, in my Western mindset, here's what I'm thinking, "All right, I'm gonna cut this up, I'm gonna put this back out on the water, and I'm gonna catch a bigger fish. And then I'm gonna cut that up and put this back out in the water and catch a bigger fish, and by the end of the day, I'm gonna have a wahoo that's may be 48 inches long, and that is what Fabi is gonna be able to take home for his family." That's my mindset. So, Fabi looks at me with this little five-inch fish and he says, "Hey, can I have that?" And I'm thinking, like, "Man, what are you talking about, can you have this, man?" I got this plan here, dude, this is gonna get much bigger than that. He's well, "No, well, can I have that, though?" I'm like, "Well, Fabi, let me just do what I'm gonna do here, and I'll get you the next one, or whatever, I'll get you a bigger one." And he says to me, "Leroy, but you don't know that you're gonna catch a bigger fish." I'm like, "Well, Fabi, that's what I do." "But you don't know if you're gonna catch a bigger fish. I could take that fish home and I could make fish soup for my family." And man, I'm like tussling inside. And it was just kinda dude, this is his dinner for the day. Do what he asks and give him this fish. So I give him the fish, he takes that little five-inch fish and he places it in his pocket. And later that day, that was his meal that day for his family. And by the way, I did not catch any fish the rest of the day so thank God I listened to Fabi and gave him that little fish. So, you talk about someone that's grateful and surely even in our most often three meals a day, we need to be grateful for God's daily provision that when we sit around the table, and whatever that looks like, that we need to give a sincere thanks for the provision that God has given us for the day, and maybe, just maybe, from time to time, that we would ask our Father, "How might you use me, how might you use me and my family to be the provision for somebody's meal today?" Because I gotta think that in this COVID environment that we're in, where many, many people are out of work, they're sick, they're lonely, they're depressed, I gotta believe that no matter where you live within a stone's-throw-away, there is a family, there is a widow, there is a widower, there's a single mom, there's a single dad, there's an elderly couple, there's just someone there that could use some assistance on a meal, no matter where you live. So, I would challenge you, and I would you to see what that looks like during this whole time that we're in right now, outside of even the season of giving to be a blessing to someone else, to be a provision for them. And here's something you might even consider, regardless of where you shop for your food, maybe go out and get a $10, $20 or $30, whatever the Lord places on your heart, gift card for that establishment. And when you're checking out, maybe hand that to the person next in line and just, "Hey man, I just wanna be a blessing to you," and to give that to them. Or, if that's too uncomfortable for you, here's another way you can do that, just give it to the cashier after you've checked out and say, "Hey, just use this for the next person, please," and you can just exit the store and maybe be praying for that person right there. But we wanna make sure that we are always grateful and thankful for God's daily provision in our lives, but then also think of ways where he might use us to be that same provision as well. So, I hope that you will do that and take me up on that challenge. So, how else did Jesus model a grateful heart towards God? That God listens. So another way Jesus demonstrated that's the word God was that he was thankful that God actually listened to him. If you remember in John Chapter 11, Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and listen to what he said here in his prayer. "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me." That Jesus thanks God openly in front of everyone, that he is grateful, that he is thankful that God has actually heard him. And we can read in Psalmist what the Psalmist says in Psalms Eight, "Who is mindful," and this is still God, "who is mankind that you are so mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" If God cares for us, then God wants to hear from us as well. And though not Jesus himself, but this is Holy-Spirit-inspired words, listen to 1 John Chapter Five here. This is the confidence. And that's really confidence, 'cause we're not guessing at this, we're not wondering if it's, this is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we asked for anything according to his will, he hears us. We have a God that wants to hear from us. He hears us. He's not like you and me, right? You know when you and me do something, or our kids may do something bad, they would say, "Hey mom, dad," and we're like, "I don't wanna hear it," you will never hear that from God. God always wants to hear from you, he always wants to hear from me regardless of the situation, regardless of the circumstance, we have a God who listens and we need to be grateful for that. From time to time, I have to be reminded that when I pray, when I spend my time with my heavenly father, that I'm not just speaking to the God who is a creator, that I'm not speaking to God who's my buddy. And yes, I understand we learned this from our little kid times, right, in Sunday school that God is our best friend, but as we grow and mature in our faith, those things he are, but he is our rock, he is our redeemer, he is our salvation, he is our restorer, he is our infinite sovereign God. And I need to be reminded of that to make sure that when I come before him, that it's with reverence, that it's with fear, and it's with trembling, but it's with confidence that God hears me, that I'm grateful for God that actually hears me. I remember a couple of years back, I kinda got into a routine that I think I was kinda taking my time with God for granted. Had my daily routine of having my time in the word and journaling most everyday as well. And I did, this was during the winter time, so I went out to the car, started the car, and I came back in the house and spent some time with the Lord. But over a period of time, I found myself, and this is crazy, but I found myself actually saying how much time I'm gonna pray dependent upon how much time it took for the car to get warm. That I started to take it for granted, as silly as that seems, that I would pray, and by the time I think the car is warm, "Oh, the car should be warm now, okay, amen." And man, was I convicted that Leroy, this is a God that wants to hear from you. You are his son. When you come before him, let it be with fear, and trembling, and reverence, and be thankful and grateful that this is a God that wants to hear from you. So, I would encourage you, if maybe if you've gotten maybe a little bit lackadaisical with that, or maybe taking it for granted, that you would be reminded of that as well, to be grateful and thankful that we have a God that actually hears us, not like the mute gods in 1 Corinthians. So, how else was Jesus grateful towards God? How about God's revelation? See, in Luke Chapter 10 when Jesus was praying when the disciples had just come back from being sent out, listen to what's here and listen here in Luke 10. "At that time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, 'I praise or I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little children. Yes Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.'" And are we not his little children, and will God not continue to reveal himself to us? How many times have you ever run across a passage of Scripture, maybe it's a passage of Scripture that you have read time and time again, but this one time you come across it, God reveals something to you about himself, or about you, that you had never been revealed before. And it changes the perspective, it changes the heart posture, it changes something about it because God has revealed himself to you. We have a God that wants to reveal himself to us. Last week when Pastor Jerry was sharing with us, there was a verse 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that he shared with us. And part of it said, "Be thankful in all circumstances." Read that verse for a zillion years. It's interesting, at our community group meeting this past week, 6:00 a.m., a bunch of guys around, just kinda talking them through the message, almost every single guy in that community group shared that morning of how what God revealed to them was that word in all circumstances, not for the circumstance itself, 'cause there are many circumstances that we would not wanna be in, but in all circumstances that we are to give thanks because it's in those circumstances that we may draw closer to God, where God may reveal himself to us. It's in those circumstances, as we watch what God does, and as we exit that circumstance, be able to go back into that and tell people how faithful God is because even in that circumstance, that we were grateful and thankful for that God has revealed himself to us, and maybe through us, he might reveal himself to other people. So, even in those circumstances, that we need to be grateful and thankful. Because listen, when you read through Scripture and God reveals himself, that's not you all of a sudden getting smarter, okay, that is God through the Holy Spirit, through his Scriptures, revealing something to you about him or revealing something to you about you. So, God has revealed himself in nature, he's revealed himself in Jesus Christ as Jesus, and he reveals himself to us in his word as well. Now, I don't believe that to be an exhaustive list of what Jesus was grateful and thankful for because Scripture tells us that Jesus, he prayed often. Jesus went here and prayed, Jesus went there and prayed, Jesus prayed often. But I gotta think though that every single time Jesus went to pray, that gratitude and thankfulness was baked into that time of prayer. I know that there are other places, but there's one more thing that if we look at closely, I think that we'll see what Jesus was thankful for. That Jesus was thankful for himself. You might say, "Hmm, that Jesus was thankful for himself." Well, it's in the last supper passage where the disciples are in the upper room, and this is just a little bit of time before all of prophecy is about to be fulfilled when he leaves to go into the garden, and is arrested, and all the prophecies about to be fulfilled. It's in upper room in Mark 14, here's what we read. "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave to the disciples saying, 'Take it. This is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they drank from it." And as I'm reading that and working through just that verse in and of itself, here's what was revealed to me, that Jesus was thanking God for himself, thanking God for the body, thanking God for the wine which is his blood, but thanking God for himself. Now, considering all that God has done, all that God is doing, and all that God has promised that he will do, the one thing, the one thing that we have to be most grateful for is for the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. The most important thing to be grateful and thankful to God's awards is his son, Jesus Christ. Now, I would suspect that a vast number of you listening right now under the sound of my voice are already followers of Jesus Christ, and that's awesome. Here's what I want you to do. I want you right now to just be in prayer. For all of those who might be under the sound of my voice right now, wherever they might be, who aren't followers of Jesus Christ, I want you to be praying for them 'cause I wanna just take a moment and share with them a couple of things. And I want you to be praying for those who have yet to be convinced of the truth of the gospel. So, this is me to all those who have not yet accepted Christ you need to know this, you have absolutely positively got to know that God created you to be in relationship with him. He didn't specifically create you to have the house that you have, he didn't specifically create you to have the job that you have, he didn't specifically create you to be all that you are, he specifically created you to be in a relationship with you so that you would love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all of your strength. But there's this thing called sin, and our sin separates us from the Holy God. The things that you say, the things that you do, the things that you think, your attitude, the crappy attitude, all of these things that continually we do, that displeases God, our sin separates us from God and creates a chasm that we cannot breach ourselves. That's what we do. That's what you do in your sin. Sins of omission, sins of commission, your sin separates you from a Holy and perfect God, and you are here unholy and imperfect. But we have to also believe what the Scripture tells us about how that's rectified because we can't erroneously think that your sin can be erased by doing good deeds. Your sin cannot be erased by doing good deeds. We read nothing about that in Scripture about your sin being erased by good deeds. We do read in Ephesians that you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not through your works. You will never read a passage of Scripture that says, "If I do this bad, I need to do this good. If I do this that's bad, I need to do this that's good. And if I do this that's really, really, really bad, I get to do this that's really, really, really good." That is not what we read in Scripture. Your sin cannot be erased by doing good deeds, and you need to know that. But paying the price for your sin, God did what only God can do, God in heaven and earth comes to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, even comes through the same way that you were born so that he would be fully 100% God, 100% man, not 50/50, but 100% God, 100% man. And the Scripture says he grew in wisdom and stature and grew in favor of God and man, and Jesus has done things that have never been done before. He said things never said before, walked on water, calmed a storm, raised the dead, gave the blind sight, gave the deaf hearing, and many, many, many other things. But then he went to the grave, lived a sinless life and went to the grave to pay for the sin that you have, your past sin, your present sin, and your future sin. All of that was paying the sin of mankind, or your sin specifically was placed on Jesus as he went to the cross, nailed to the cross. And there he died and went into the grave and the stone was rolled over the grave, and the devil was thinking, "Hey, I win." But that was only day one. And then there was day two and then there was day three, and on the third day, the stone was rolled away and Jesus Christ has risen from the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that can be in you when you accept Christ as your Lord and savior. And Jesus was seen by hundreds and hundreds of people for weeks on end, before he ascended to the Father proving victory over sin and victory over death. Jesus took the payment that you could never pay for your sins. And Scripture says, when you personally, you, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That chasm you created has been closed because of Jesus Christ and you are now reconciled to God, forgiven, redeemed, restored, and new. And when the time comes where you are no longer on this earth, your soul will rest with Jesus Christ in heaven. And at the time of Jesus' coming, you will then get your new body which is way better than the body that you have right now. But until that time, when you accept Christ, the Holy Spirit, again, that same one that raised Christ from the dead, the Holy Spirit is placed in you so that as you journey through this life and growing in your faith, you can do what, you can live just like Jesus lived. And I gotta think that that is what you want, and you've gotta know that. So it's my hope and it's my prayer that as everyone around you has been praying for you, that you would take that final step. Jesus came from heaven to earth, and back, and all you have to take is one little step of faith. And that one little step of faith will be the biggest and the best decision you have ever made. So, I want you to take that step this morning. And you can do that a number of different ways, and we just wanna come alongside you to help you get started in your new journey, your new walk with Jesus Christ. So on the screen, you might see the phone number. You can call 631-2636. We'd love to walk you through what that would look like. Now, do you have to call? No, you don't have to call, but man, why wouldn't you, ma'am, why wouldn't you call? We wanna help you to do just that, to get out of the starting blocks, to help you on your first week of being a follower of Jesus Christ. But I get it, if you can't do that right now, like, "Leroy I'm driving, I can't do that," here's what you do, you can call later on this week anytime we'd be more than happy to talk to you. No, one's gonna ask you for any money, you're not joining the church, but you are joining the family of God, my brother and sister in Christ. Or you can just go to thechapel.com/knowingjesus, and Pastor Jonathan Drake, who was our campus pastor in the falls would walk you through what that looks like. But man, why wouldn't you do that? You don't even have to listen to the rest of the messages. Just go do that, you can watch this later, but go do that. I would implore you to make that decision and you will see yourself why this is the greatest thing to be thankful towards God for his son, Jesus Christ, the only way in which you can be saved.

Well, here's what I wanna do right now. I want us to kinda break from the message so that we can just celebrate together in the Lord's supper. So, as Curtis said a little while ago, whatever you might have, maybe it's a scone, or a bagel, or an English muffin, or a piece of pancake, whatever that is, just have that handy right now, if you would, and whatever juice you might have, apple juice, grape juice, maybe even prune juice, whatever that might be, just take that handy right now. And we're gonna go before the Lord and we're just gonna celebrate together in the communion. And we're just gonna go back to Mark 14, basically. And then after that, the worship team's gonna come back out and they're gonna lead us again with some rich, rich worship. And after that, I'm gonna just come back and talk a little bit more about what do we do with this now? Now that we have this part of gratitude towards God, how does this now impact our lives, what do we do with this gratitude at this point? So, we'll do that, and then we'll close out. And don't forget you do have your homework assignment that I'm gonna give you. So, if you would please, take whatever it is that you have been able to find around the house for your bread. And if you could just take that and just repeat with me in all sincerity this morning, as we talk about gratitude, just repeat after me, the body of Jesus broken for me. Let us eat together. And then take whatever beverage that you have. Remember God knows your heart, he knows the intent of your heart. So, whatever beverage you have, if you could just hold that as well and repeat after me, the blood of Jesus, pour it out for me. Let us drink together. Father, we are eternally grateful for an eternal God that loved us so much to step out of heaven, to come to sinful earth in the form of Jesus Christ to live a perfect sinless life to only then be killed, but to have all of our sins, sin of mankind, placed upon him and then to raise from the grave three days later proving victory over sin and victory over death. Father, for that, we are eternally grateful for all that you have done, and that will forever be part of our heart that moves us to gratitude. So Father, we thank you. In you precious name, our risen Lord and savior. Amen.

So it's upon that foundation, that foundation of gratitude towards God that now we take that and we allow that to be spread out throughout our lives to other people. Because when we get that gratitude from the vertical from us to God, when we get that gratitude and thankfulness properly ordered in our lives, that has to then be flowed out from us, from our hearts to other people. You see, showing gratitude has to be the heart posture of every believer, showing gratitude has to be the heart posture of every believer. Listen to this quote here by Doctor David Hamilton, who wrote a book, "Why Goodness is Good for You". Now, I don't know about his religious background or anything, so I'm not vouching for that book, but listen to this quote here, that gratitude is a mark of being kind to life by being aware of all that is around us. And when we are grateful, we acknowledge the people and situations in our lives and express thanks for them. So, growing up, our parents taught us to say thank you, which is good, we hopefully taught our kids to say thank you which is all good, but I would challenge us to go maybe a little bit further than that, that we would not only teach them to say thank you, which is good, but teach them and model for them what a demonstrative is like to truly be grateful for other people because gratefulness goes a little bit beyond just simply saying thank you. Now, there's quite a bit of research that talks about the benefits of actually, what does it look like when our hearts are really postured toward gratitude, when we live lives that demonstrate gratitude? There are some benefits that we get from that type of a disposition. I just wanna share a few with you here. A greater sense of wellbeing is what we can demonstrate when we have a heart postured to gratitude. Improves physical health because there is a link between gratitude, or a lack thereof in gratitude, and how that relates to stress, and depression, and anxiety. Now, yes there are some physiological things to be mindful of, but when we have our hearts postured towards gratitude we can see a reduced stress, reduced anxiety and reduce in depression as well. Improves self-esteem and empathy. Kinda think along the lines of compassion towards others, compassion and understanding. And here's one that was really unique, decreased aggression. And you're like, "Decreased aggression? How does a grateful heart help decrease aggression?" Here's what it does, because a grateful heart, it fights against jealousy, it fights against envy, and it fights against greed as well, and it also fights of being critical and judgmental of others. Think along the lines of Paul, when Paul says that he was content with a lot and content with a little, so, I'm content with a big fish or content with a small fish. But you can see where a heart of gratitude does decrease aggression. And then increased overall optimism. Man, is that not something our world needs right now, increased optimism? And where else should they really be able to see that, but from Christ followers, right? as we live out our lives where God has placed us, people should see that in us and we should be able to share with them and how we actually come to that. And improved sleep. Okay, well, there you go. If there's some more rationale, improved sleep should do that as well. So, those are just some of the things that we see benefits from that have been proven when we live with a life that's full of gratitude and thanks. But here's one of the things that I think you will definitely agree that it's one of the greatest benefits of when we live that way, is when we live with a grateful heart towards others, we see the quality of our relationships vastly improve, that when we live with a grateful heart towards others, we will see the quality of our relationships greatly improve. Would you believe that? I do, I honestly believe that because here's what I know to be true, that when people know that they are valued, they become more valuable, right? When people know that they are valued, they become more valuable. Ask the husband that demonstrates to his wife that he values her if she doesn't become more valuable, ask the wife that demonstrates that she values her husband, does he not become more valuable, ask the employer who demonstrates value for their employees if they don't become more valuable? You see, as we just demonstrate gratitude towards God, we see our lives with him, our intimacy become greater, and the value of even our relationship with him becomes more impactful as well. And if that happens in the heavenly realms, why would that not happen on the earthly realms? Because when people know that they are valued, they become more valuable. So, I did mention that you have some homework today. In fact, your homework is gonna be due in 10 minutes so you better be ready to jump on it. I did this when I spoke at Lighthouse Christian Church last year, and we spoke on a similar topic, but I asked them to do this. And obviously no one is here so you're at home, but here's what I want you to do, on whatever form of social media you're on, maybe you're on YouTube, or maybe you're on Facebook, I don't know anything about Instagram and what you can do on that, but maybe whatever form of social media that you are on right now, here's what I challenge and encourage you to do, post the name of two people that you are grateful for. It could be for a variety of different reasons, but post the name of two people that you are grateful for. And I'd love to see you just start blowing up that social media with those types of things, the names of two people that you are grateful for. And I know the guys are like, "Oh, Leroy, man, I am not into posting." Well, listen, I didn't ask you all that, I just said, simply post the names of two people that you are grateful for. Pretty please with sugar on it, if you would do that, please. But if you will do that, that would be great. But then here's what I want you to do to wrap up that assignment, I want you then to take whatever effort you can, whatever it looks like, to make every effort to actually reach out to those individuals, those two individuals today, and to let them know how grateful you are for what they have done and what they have been in your life. Because when people know that they are valued, they become more valuable. I'm gonna close with this Scripture here in Philippians. For those who are believers, you have seen this many, many times, Philippians 2, one through four. "Therefore, if any of you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love if any common sharing in his spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one in mind, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others." When people know that they are valued, they become more valuable. Let us be grateful not only to God for what he has done, what he is doing, what he will do, let us be grateful for his gift of Jesus Christ and let that gratitude that we have flow from our hearts to those around us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, we wanna thank you so much for this day, and as always, the opportunity to hear you share with us this morning, relative to what it means to live with a grateful heart postured towards you. Father, we're grateful and thankful that you are a God who listens, and you are a God who provides, that you are a God who reveals, and that you have given us the precious gift of Jesus Christ, Lord. So, we thank you for that and we just pray that as we leave here this morning, that would always would be the disposition of our heart would be that of gratitude, and gratitude for you and gratefulness to others. And let the world see you because of how we live our lives to walk and live like Jesus did. In Jesus' holy and precious name we pray, amen.