The Pathway to Gratitude

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Good morning, Springhouse. Oh, you can do better. Is it a good morning?

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Is God good? Come on,

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come on. God is good today.

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Well, I am so glad to be with you in the presence of the Lord.

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You'll have to forgive me if I'm limping a little bit this morning. I'm pretty

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sure I'm passing a kidney stone before you right now. But I'm gonna

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preach through this because I believe God's given me a word. So I'm gonna do

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it today. Before we get started, I have a few

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announcements. First of all, aren't we so thankful for the

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ministry of f. Stop doing pictures for us. Family

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pictures. If you came today, prepare to do family pictures that will be

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out there through the way to the fellowship hall. And if you came today and

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you didn't sign up but you'd like to have a family portrait, we'd be glad

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to do that for you as well. It's a free gift from us to you

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and they will have that back to you in time for Christma. Okay, a

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couple other things for us to just make note of. Okay? First of all, we're

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heading into Advent next week, which is the four weeks leading up to

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Christmas Day. And on December 5th and 6th, something very special is gonna

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be happening here. And it is our very own Springhouse kids

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production of A Star Is Born. And we want you to come and be a

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part of that on those nights. That's a Friday and a Saturday night,

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and then the day after on the 7th, we're gonna have a Springhouse

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Christmas party here. So what that's gonna look like if you wanna

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worship and word, we're gonna do that at 9am in this room. And then

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following that, at 11, we're gonna do a reprise of A Star Is Born. Yes,

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I believe it's gonna be that good. And we're gonna do a reprise of the

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show. And then we're gonna have lunch and there's gonna be candy and there's gonna

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be all types of fun things for the kids to do and you to do.

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Please make plans to come and celebrate with us during that

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very special time on December 7th. Then later

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on in the month, on December 19th, it's our annual Carols by

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Candlelight. And let me tell you, you're not gonna wa. Candlelight.

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Make a point to be a part of it. It's always a packed house and

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a rich time together. And then one of my favorite services of the year is

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on Christmas Day at 11 o'. Clock. And I'll tell you, I've been here nearly

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three decades, and I have only missed one Christmas Day.

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And I remember it. I remember the year I missed it. It

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is the thing that ties that day together. Please be a part of

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that, that day. It's 11 to 12. So we know you have plans with your

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family, and we will get you out of here on time for those

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plans. And then, man, you missed an incred incredible

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midweek series. Real Talk with Pastor Justin. So go back and look at that

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online. We will not be here this Thursday. Hopefully you'll

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be with family gathering, and we do not have midweek gathering again until

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January 8th. And so there will be no midweek gathering for the month of

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December. If you show up on Thursday night, hopefully somebody else shows up, too, and

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y' all can go to Starbucks and hang out. We won't be here, but

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we will be back on January 8th.

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Okay. It's Thanksgiving week, and so we are going

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to talk about the pathway to gratitude. Would you

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say that the pathway to gratitude.

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And so we're gonna draw from the book of Luke, hopefully a story that you

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are familiar with. So if you'll stand with me this morning, let's read with

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gusto and excitement this morning, because anytime

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God gives a word, it is exciting. Okay, here we go. As

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Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came

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to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home

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to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat

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at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But

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Martha was distracted by all the preparations that he

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had been. She came to him and asked, lord,

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don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by

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myself? Tell her to help me. Martha.

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Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset

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about many things, but few things are needed, or

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indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is

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better, and it will not be taken away from her. Father, I

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thank you for your precious word. I thank you for the gift of your word.

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And I just pray, Lord, that it would minister to our hearts today. In Jesus

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name, amen. You may be seated. Well, I

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am extremely grateful for a lot of things, and

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first and foremost, I just have to tell you I'm thankful for

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macaroni and cheese. Planning

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on eating some of that golden deliciousness this year

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on Thursday? And I hope that you're planning on having some good food and that

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you're grateful for it. It is the season to be thankful. It's the season

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to be grateful. But might I suggest to you that the

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life of a believer should be saturated with Gratitude.

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I'm going to say that again. The life of a believer should be

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saturated with gratitude. But the culture with which we

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live, the culture, the society we live, we have reduced the time

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we've had to earmark a time to be thankful. And that is the

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fourth Thursday of the November month where

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we get together with family, some people who we actually don't like,

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and we invite them over our houses and they sit around our tables and

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we look at them and we have shallow conversations and we eat some pretty

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good food, hopefully. And then with the people that we really want to say thank

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you to, because we're such in a hurry, we'll send them a text message.

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Send them a text message and say, happy Thanksgiving. And if we're really in a

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hurry, we'll put them in a group message, because everybody loves a group text message

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with all of the thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and all of

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the turkey emojis. And if you're really, really busy, you won't even have time to

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spell out the word thank you. You'll just put, ty.

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Isn't that the culture we live in? I'm

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thankful for macaroni and cheese. I'm thankful for friends

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who helped me not make tragic choices in my life.

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So tragic that even my baby was kind of scared to be held.

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I'm grateful this year to be your pastor,

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to walk alongside some of the most wonderful, fabulous, fascinating people

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in my life. I'm grateful for my family.

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I'm grateful that the Lord has given me Hadassah. He's given

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me Lucia, Ruby, Nora, and soon to be Eliana, and my

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wife Shari. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. But I'm not just

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thankful because a date on a calendar tells me to be thankful.

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I'm thankful because of the overflow of blessing

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the Lord has placed on my life. I believe that the mark

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of gratitude flows from the overflow of

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selflessness. Gratitude flows from the

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overflow of selflessness. So I want to

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talk today about the pathway of gratitude. And I want to start with a story

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that I recently heard that I thought really fit with today's message.

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There's this man who loves to fly. He loves to fly

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internationally, he loves to fly nationally, and he's a businessman. And

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he flies. And he flies frequently across seas. And his favorite airport

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is the London Heathrow Airport. Has anybody ever flown through London Heathrow?

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And so he loves that airport. And he doesn't love that airport because they

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are organized or on top of things or the flights get out

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faster or Anything like that. He likes it because there's this

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doughnut shop in this airport called Little Tiny

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Donuts. And every time he goes to London Heathrow Airport,

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he goes to this donut shop, Little Tiny

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Donuts, and picks up a box of eight fresh

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little mini donuts and eats them every single time. And so he has

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this itinerary, and it puts him in London Heathrow, and he's gonna go

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by and get those donuts just like he always does. And he's super excited. In

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fact, his entire day is wrapped around getting these donuts. And so he lands in

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London Heathrow for the layover. And

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when he gets to the layover, he's looking around and he goes and gets the

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donuts, and he's looking around for a place to sit. Because, see, the donuts are

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only good when they're fresh. The donuts are only good when they're fresh.

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And so he gets the donuts and he's looking for a place to sit, but

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he can't because there are tables everywhere, but there are tons of people in

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this airport, so he really wants to sit down. And he's looking around and he

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sees in the back, there's this round table, and there's this man sitting there, and

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he's reading a book. And there's one chair on the other side of this

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small round table. And so he goes up to the table and he makes eye

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contact with the man, and he nods to the chair, and the man nods to

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the chair and he says, okay, that's my invitation to sit down. And so he

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sits down and he's excited, and he puts his stuff down and he

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grabs his newspaper and he opens it up and he reaches his hand

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and grabs that first donut. And, oh, it was just delightful. He

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puts it in his mouth, he's chewing it up. It is everything he had hoped

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for for that day. So much so that before he actually consumed that entire

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donut, he reached his hand back in the box and put a second one in.

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He was really enjoying these donuts. Well, as

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he's chewing these donuts and enjoying the savory flavor of these donuts and reading the

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paper, something astonishing happened. The guy that was sitting on the other side of

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the table takes his hand, reaches across the table and

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grabs a donut out of the donut box.

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And the man reading the paper looked over at the man reading the book, and

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they make eye contact. And not only did he take one of the donuts out

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of the box, but he smirked at him while he did it. As if

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this was something acceptable, as if this was okay.

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And so the man reading the paper was not very happy about the man grabbing

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his donut. So he continues to read the paper,

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and he grabs another donut and puts it in his mouth. And he's just kind

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of like, what just happened here? And as he's thinking, what just happened here?

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The man across the table reading the book reaches out again and

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grabs another donut. And this time, the man

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reading the paper looks eyeball to eyeball to him while the other man's

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smiling and gives him this stare, blank, like, what are you doing?

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And so as he's staring him eyeball to eyeball, he reaches over, puts his hand

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in the donut box, slides the donut box toward him, pulls

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out another donut, pops it in his mouth. Hopefully he'll get the sign.

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Well, the guy with the book kind of straightens up, and he's smiling and happy

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and reaches further across the table and

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gets a third donut. On the third donut, the man closes the

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newspaper, slams it on the table with his hand, and says, I've gotta move.

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And so he reaches down to grab all of his stuff. And when he reaches

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down to grab his stuff on top of his bag, he sees a box of

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donuts that has not been opened

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the entire time. The man with the newspaper was eating

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the donuts that belonged to the guy with the book.

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Here we have a story of two heart postures. The first heart posture is,

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what's mine is yours. The second

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heart posture is, what's mine is mine. And if we

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ever live in a culture saturated with what's

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mine is mine, if we ever live in a culture that

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says, I've earned this. I bought this. I did

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this. And you wonder why the blessing of heaven can't

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flow free in your life because you are holding on so tight to

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what you have. I'm going to tell you right now, I believe with all of

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my heart the reason the Beshears family is able to walk through a season with

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a new house being built is because they opened their home when they had no

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room for multiple families to come stay with them. When you give out of

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your nothing, the Lord returns a whole lot to your behalf. He returns

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things to you many fold than you can ever imagine. And the Lord is

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blessing you guys because of your generosity and your willingness to open up what you

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have and say, there's always a place at my table. Is

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it said for you guys? Is it said of you that you always have room

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at your table or Are you one of the ones

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clenching with dear life every little thing that you have because your

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name is on it? Let's look at the pathway to

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gratitude by looking at five roadblocks. Five

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roadblocks that stop us from reaching a lifestyle

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of gratitude. Using the story of Mary and Martha,

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the first one I want to look at, the first roadblock to our pathway to

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gratitude is distraction. We

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are distracted.

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I didn't get an amen. I'm going to try that again. We are

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distracted. You are distracted.

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I am distracted. We are so. We are. We

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squirrel everywhere. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. We are

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so saturated with distraction. Can I tell you,

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I believe that we were not created to consume as

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much information as we consume our

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brains and our minds and our lives. We are

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overstimulated and over saturated. But here's

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what's so crazy about that. We give an amen when a statement like that's

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made, but we do nothing to stop it. In fact, we go chase it. We

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are looking for more information, looking for more stimulation, looking for more things

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to distract us. Busyness is not a

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badge of honor. The things

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that God has given you, he has graced you in certain things.

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Some of you are able to carry a load a lot heavier than the person

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sitting next to you. If God has graced you to do that, praise God for

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some of you, he has graced you to do fewer things. But

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may none of us step out of God's grace when he has given us something

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to do. How are the indicators? What are the indicators? Whenever

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we're stepping out of God's grace, the indicators are fatigue,

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family issues, being distraught, being

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sick. All of these are indicators that you may not be. If

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you're running on fumes all of the time, if the

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fruit of the spirit is not evident in your life, then

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you may not be leaning into the spirit.

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Imagine going to the gas pump and putting water in your gas tank.

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That's not going to last very long. You'll get some of the residue from the

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gas you had in before, but eventually your car's going to go kaput.

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Can I say it's the same thing with your life. We are

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so distracted. This is what the word says. But Martha was

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distracted by all the preparations that had to

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be made. Can I tell you that some of you hear this? Please.

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Some of you are going to get to Thursday. You're going to wake up

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early. You're going to go to bed that night and you're going to miss the

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entire day because you were distracted

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by all the preparation of Serving everybody else.

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Now we're going to have a turkey at my house, and my wife's going to

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have to make it. She gonna be preparing that

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turkey. But what. I don't. But I'm not saying that my wife

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is the only. I cook at my house too. Okay? Geez,

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Justin. Some

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of you guys are gonna make some great dry turkeys, okay? It's gonna be great.

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Okay, here's the deal. There are

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preparations that have to be made. See, here's the

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thing. We read this story about Mary and Martha, and we automatically assume that

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Martha has done something wrong. Think about it.

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We think Martha has just completely. She's just done something

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completely wrong. Like she shouldn't be preparing that Jesus is there. Do you notice at

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the end of the story, it never says Martha changed anything.

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It wasn't that Martha was necessarily doing anything

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wrong. It's that she had the wrong heart posture.

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You can be a preparer, you can be

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doing things, and you can be doing it with the wrong heart

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posture. In the same way, you can be doing nothing

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and be doing nothing with the wrong heart posture.

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It's all about heart posture. Jesus told Martha, you are worried

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and troubled about many things. When we are hurried, overwhelmed, overstimulated,

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or emotionally scattered, we literally use the ability to see the

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blessing that sitting right in front of us when we're

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going so fast. Brittany Grisham said something to me once that

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convicted the mess out of me. I was with her, and

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she was saying, kevin, I so enjoy walking alongside

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you, ministering alongside you. And I have. Brittany and I have

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ministered together since youth grew. I mean, we've. For a long time. But I went

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to her house one time and she said, but you know, Kev,

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the thing is, is I don't mind helping you get to the vision, but I

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just don't want to be trampled upon in the.

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You see, the thing that we are doing is not more important

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than the people we are doing it with. All of

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this, everything that you see here is all about

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God's people being restored to him and restored to

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one another. Everything has to do with relationship.

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Everything has to do with eternity. And

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we can get so mixed up on this turkey, it's got to look just right,

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be just right, and miss the whole point of everybody

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who's gathered around. Some distractions

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are not just there by happenstance. Some of the distractions you put in your life

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on purpose because you're trying to avoid a conversation that you need to have.

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Aren't you glad you came to church? This morning.

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Hurry overshadows the good stuff.

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Hurry overshadows the good, important stuff. I have a

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feeling. Has this PowerPoint been updated? Y' all have the most recent

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one up there? We're gonna find out in just a minute, aren't we? Okay.

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Martha wasn't necessarily doing something wrong. She was doing the right thing with

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the wrong heart condition. She was distracted, worried, overwhelmed,

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emotionally scattered. Jesus, says Martha. Martha, you are worried and

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troubled about many things. There was Christmas

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time, and I was just in a season where I was

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doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. You ever know anybody that's just always just

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doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. I was doing so much, and I was not

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focused on anybody around me. And I had a group of friends who wanted me

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to come over to their Christmas celebration. And I believe that I

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actually told them I was coming, and I didn't come. Have you ever told somebody

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you were gonna come and then you didn't? No. You guys are perfect. Okay,

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well, I made the mistake. I said I was coming, and I didn't come. And

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I thought to myself, I felt so bad because they just wanted to hang out

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with me. They just wanted to spend time, and I just felt so bad. So

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I said, you know what? I know what I'll do. I'm gonna go buy some

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massive Christmas gifts, and I'm just gonna bless em. And so I go

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to Target and I buy up the shelves and I wrap them up, and I

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go to their front doorstep, and I lay a pile of gifts right there. Right

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during the party, the party I was supposed to be at just laid gifts and

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walked away. I was so proud of myself. And so I walked away,

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and I just was going and going, and I. And I got

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in my car, and I'm just awaiting the text message,

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the text message that said, thank you so much for these wonderful gifts. You know,

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nobody said anything to me. The next day, I'm

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looking at my phone saying, maybe something's wrong. Maybe I didn't pay my phone bill.

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Surely they got these gifts. I mean, nobody gets gifts and doesn't say

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thank you. And I went through that day, not

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one thank you, not one message. And then I was ticked.

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And so the next day, I just said, well, you know what? Forget them. I

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text them and said, did you not see the gifts on your porch? And I

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got one response. And the response was this.

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You cannot buy your way into relationship.

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Presence with a CE is far greater than presence.

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Some of you need to take this into Friday of this week.

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Silence. You know what Friday is?

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Some of you need to take this into Friday and Saturday of this week because

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some of you are going to go into the negative in your bank account trying

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to buy relationships. When presence with a CE

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is all that is needed. Distraction

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hides blessings. Presence reveals them. Mary slowed down. She sat.

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She listened. You cannot be grateful for what you refuse to slow

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down long enough to notice. So

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distraction then leads to our second row barrier, which is not.

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This is the wrong slideshow. So I'm going to try to make

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this happen here, okay? Selfishness. When

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we stop appreciating people, we start

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expecting from them.

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Selfishness filters every decision

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through you. Selfishness filters

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every decision through you guys. I missed this this week with my

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nine month pregnant wife, Shari. I had an activity that I

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wanted to go do with a friend and I went and did that activity and

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she had asked. She didn't ask me to do anything all week. She asked me,

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would you come home and do this one thing at this specific time? And it.

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Oh, this is so bad. So horrible. It was an appointment I set up

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and I made her meet with the person and I stayed there. Horrible. I

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am the most selfish husband. Oh, Jesus, can y' all come pray for

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me right now?

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But can I tell you my wife loves me.

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And it was modeled in her response to my

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selfishness. You see, love's test

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happens when the rubber hits the road. Love's test

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is really about the response when somebody comes upon your path and

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wrongs you. And she responded with such

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grace. And I did not deserve it.

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Paul says to value others above yourself.

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Do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility, value

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others above yourself. Selfishness

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shrinks gratitude because it turns every blessing into not enough.

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Listen, Mary expected. Sorry. Martha expected

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Mary to serve her agenda. When we walk in selfish

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ways, we expect people to bow down to what we want in our

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agenda. Agenda.

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When we walk in selfish ways, we expect people to bow down to

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our agenda. Selfishness creeps in

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quietly. This is what the. It's. Ask these questions. Why am I doing all the

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work? Why isn't

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anyone here helping me? Why

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aren't they meeting my expectations?

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Selfishness is a roadblock toward gratitude.

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And if it's not distraction that leads to selfishness, the next thing it

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leads to is not. It's to

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Chili's.

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Sorry. It hurts to laugh. Okay, baby. No, it's

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chilies. Maybe macaroons. All right. It leads to pride.

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Pride. You're like, what did we miss in the first gathering?

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Pride is the next step after selfishness. Selfishness says,

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serve me pride. Says, my way is right

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as your pastor. The first thing, when I met with the elders

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and they conferred the appointment of lead pastor,

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and then we had a meeting with the leaders, the very first thing I asked

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for is, the very first request that I had from the leadership of this church

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is I said, I need your permission to fail.

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I need your permission to fail.

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I know it's astonishing to hear, but I am not always right.

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Shari knows that more than anyone. But I'm here to inform you that your

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pastor is not always right. But I know a God who always

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is. And I know what it

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looks like to have a bad attitude towards somebody who's not right and misses it.

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I know what it's like to respond the correct way to somebody who

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missteps or misses it. I'm not

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always right. Pride says, you're right. I'm right all

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the time. Martha stands over Jesus and says, lord, tell

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her to help me. Pride tells God how

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things should go. Have you ever tried that? How's that worked

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out for you? Pride makes your perspective the standard. It

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makes your expectation the requirement. It makes your experience the

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truth. Mary shows humility by sitting at

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Jesus feet. Martha shows pride by standing in accusation.

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James 4, 6 says this. God opposes the

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proud, but gives grace to the humble. Is there

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anybody here who needs grace? Raise your hand if you need grace. I just want

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to check. Litmus test here. Look at your neighbor and say, I need

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grace. Look at them and say, remember that Thursday.

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Okay?

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He gives grace to those who walk in humility, who are humble.

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Pride makes gratitude impossible because pride

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convinces you that everything you have is earned,

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owned, and deserved.

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When I taught back at the school at Lancaster, when I taught early

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on, when I started there, I was in a classroom full of students. And

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you know what? I thought I was the cat's pajamas when it came to teaching.

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I mean, I was like, I am the teacher. And

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I got in there and I taught this history lesson. And I knew

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that every student got the information that I was trying to convey because I

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did a great job presenting the information. And I was

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ready on that Friday to give them a test. Because, Scotty, I did my

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job. I taught and taught and taught, and they have better retained

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everything that I said. So I handed out that test

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and I collected that test. And I had about 12 students in that room, and

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eight students failed. And I was happy

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to give them all an F. F for you. F for you. F. Why?

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I taught the subject. I did my job. You didn't do your job

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retaining it. Can I Tell you just a sidebar. If you're a

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teacher and over half of your class fails the test, you

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didn't do a good job teaching. Okay.

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But arrogant, prideful Kevin thought, hey,

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I did my job and made the dumb mist. Going right into the

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faculty meeting with the principal saying, hey, I taught this thing, and I had

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eight kids fail the test. She came to my classroom, said, we're gonna have to

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remove you from this class.

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And she said, kevin, here's the thing you don't understand. When the

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student fails, the teacher has failed.

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And I had an epiphany that it wasn't about me

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giving information to see if they get it right. It was about me making

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sure that they owned and learned the material.

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And I have failed my students because of my arrogance and

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my pride. Gratitude only

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grows in humble soil. And so if you've

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got distractions that lead to selfishness, selfishness leads to pride.

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What does pride lead to? And this, guys, this is really. I'm honing in

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right here on what I want your takeaway to be right here. Because this week

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is a week where some of you are going to be sitting at tables with

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people that you don't want to sit at tables with.

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You're going to be conversing. Some of you have already gotten out of gatherings

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that you didn't want to go to. And it's because of this issue here,

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and it's not this one, because this is going to be. I'm going to get

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there. Bitterness.

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Distraction leads to selfishness. Selfishness leads to pride. Pride

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leads to bitterness.

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Martha says, lord, don't you care?

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You cannot hold bitterness and gratitude in the same heart.

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Let me say it this way. If you rehearse it in here,

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if you rehearse what happened in here over and over again, you

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can't release it here.

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This is what bitterness, bitterness looks like.

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I have never. I've struggled with bitterness in my life. I have

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never been bitter towards someone I didn't love.

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Are you with me? If I meet a random Bob and he

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does something wrong, and I've never. I don't have any relationship with him. I

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probably am not going to struggle with bitterness.

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But if you struggle with bitterness, if you've struggled with bitterness and you

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think of that person, it has to be somebody that you've had some

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relational equity with. And so

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what happens is this. You meet this person

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and you strike up a relationship with this person. And in

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this relationship, all these wonderful things happen.

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Wonderful life, wonderful conversations,

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experiences, adventures. Help when you're hurting.

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Prayer Just being there when you're down, being there when things

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go awry. I mean, just wonderful, incredible things

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take place in that relationship that bond you together. And

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then that person makes one bad choice.

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And all of a sudden, that one bad choice, that one

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mistake, that one mission, that one hurt,

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that one failure, overshadows everything

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that has been good in that relationship.

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And so we walk around like this with that

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bitter mistake, and we walk away from everything

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that brought that relationship to fruition. Every good and wonderful

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thing, we walk away from it because we're going to hold on to this one

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thing, this one choice, this one mistake. Some

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of us are going to go to tables this Thursday and sit down with

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somebody that you're holding a big old canister of bitterness toward.

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It robs us of the ability of seeing everything

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that brought the relationship to the forefront.

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We carry this around. I find it interesting that while we

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carry this for people, this is how we expect people to

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view us,

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Because we always got good stuff, right. I want you to view me in the

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positive light, while at the same time, I'm going to view

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my neighbor like this.

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Ephesians 4, 29 says this. Do

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not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but

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only what is helpful for building others up. Why do I start here? At the

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end of this scripture is going to address bitterness. Why do I start this? I

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was not going to start here, but I thought, you know what? No, this is

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a great place to start. Because out of the root of bitterness comes unwholesome

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talk according to their needs, that they may

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benefit those who listen. And then it says, do not

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grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Might I

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suggest to you, friends, that when you talk bad about other people,

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when you slander and you gossip, you are grieving the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit

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of God, with whom you were sealed for the

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day of redemption. And then it says these three words. Say them with me.

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Get rid of all bitterness. Not

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some. Not. Okay, I can get rid of this because, you know, I liked your

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outfit and your hair today, so I think we're good now. You've paid enough

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penance for what you did to me, you know. Okay, you're so.

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No. Get rid of all bitterness, rage,

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anger, brawling, slander, along with every form of

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malice. And then it doesn't just. I love that God doesn't just tell us what

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not to do. He tells us what to do. It's not enough.

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Listen, it's not enough to just get rid of it. There's more.

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There's always more with God. Be kind and

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compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as

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Christ, God forgave you.

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In other words, let's look at this. Bitterness

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turns memories into weapons and rewrites a good

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story around the worst moment.

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In other words, bitterness revises

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your story so that the worst part becomes the highlight. The

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headline. Bitterness is like an emotional

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eraser. It wipes away every good memory that a person created.

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Bitterness narrows the story down to one moment, one

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wound, one disappointment. Bitterness blinds the

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heart. It breaks relationships. It blocks gratitude.

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The Bible warns that bitterness will defile everything it

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touches, including your ability to see the good in someone.

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And so if you start with distraction and it leads to selfishness, and

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then you're walking in pride and it leads to bitterness, Bitterness

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opens the door for the biggest blockade toward gratitude,

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and that is unforgiveness. It's the

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heaviest roadblock because you'll never reach

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gratitude if you stay chained to the past.

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Jesus responds to Martha not with anger, but with compassion.

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And there's only seven times that I can find in Scripture that the Lord says

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a name twice back to back. And this is one of them. He says, martha,

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Martha, have you ever been trying to get somebody's attention and you need them to

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listen to you? Scotty, Scotty,

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hear what I am saying to you.

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To respond out of compassion. Jesus does.

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Forgiveness breaks the chains. Forgiveness

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heals the heart. Forgiveness makes space for gratitude.

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Again, forgiveness is not pretending that the wound didn't hurt. I'm going to

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say that again. Forgiveness is not pretending that the wound didn't

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hurt. Guys, let me tell you something. You're gonna be hurt by the people

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who love you.

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In fact, just to make it a little more concrete, raise your hand if you've

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ever been hurt by somebody who loves you. Okay,

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so we're all pretty much on the same playing ground.

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So if we're on the same playground, why are so many of us holding

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onto it?

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Why are so many of us holding onto it? Several months ago, or

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several years ago rather, there was a situation where I felt like I

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really hear heard something from the Holy Spirit and I acted upon it.

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And the way that I went about it was completely wrong.

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And it caused hurt, it caused division, it caused a

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severing of a relationship. And I was broken and grieved because it

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never was my intention, but it is what happened.

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And there were moments in that severing of relationship I thought, this is

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never going to be repaired. And

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it wasn't going to be repaired with a flesh reaction. It was

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never going to be repaired with a flesh antidote.

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But do you know how gracious and wonderful our Holy

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Spirit is that he got into that other person's

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life? The one that had every right to walk out on my life,

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Every right to be upset, be hurt, be wounded, to hold on to bitterness.

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And you know that the Holy Spirit of God worked on their heart

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and they decided to sit across from me at lunch in tears and say, kevin,

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I forgive you.

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Can I tell you that our relationship has been so much better

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and deeper and more meaningful post that interaction than before?

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Because when the Holy Spirit gets involved and you

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surrender that hard space to him, what he does is he

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removes your flesh glasses and he gives you

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eternal ones. He gives you Holy Spirit glasses to

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see things the way he sees them, to see the person.

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Listen, I want to see you with the hurt I've experienced. I want to see

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you with this wound. But the Holy Spirit gets involved in these things. No,

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there's so much good. There's so much good.

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There's so much life. And if you'll just lay down your

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pride and your hurt, if you'll lay down that bitterness, I will

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show you all of the good things. And guess what? There's more.

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There's more to be had. But you gotta be willing to

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surrender. You gotta be willing to give it to the Lord. You gotta be willing

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to recognize that you are going to be hurt and other people are going to

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hurt you. And you're going to hurt people because we're broken.

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Colossians 3 says this. Therefore, as God's chosen people,

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holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion,

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kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. I hope

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that these are common things happening around tables this week on

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Thursday. But more than just this week, this would be a lifestyle and life

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posture of those who call themselves believers, Bear with each

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other and forgive one another. If you have a grievance against someone, forgive as

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the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love. You

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know what the very. You know what the most important word in that first sentence

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right there? Forgive as the Lord forgave you. You know what the most important word

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is? It's the word as.

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Because we read that and say forgive because the Lord forgave

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you. It's not what it says. It says

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forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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Has anyone been forgiven much from the Lord? Raise your hand,

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guys. If it's pride, if it's deceit, if

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it's lust, if it's theft, all the things I

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am a guilty person.

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I'm grateful for Mac and cheese. I'm grateful for friends. I'm

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grateful for family. But I am grateful that I am really redeemed because of the

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blood of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful that he sought

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fit to not draw lines, but to draw

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circles. I believe that true forgiveness draws circles and

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invites in. It doesn't draw lines. The big buzzword right now in the culture is

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this word boundaries. Make sure you create a boundary so you don't get hurt again.

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Make sure you put distance. Make sure you just keep everything separate in a

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way. And then we cleverly get into scripture and we weave our way to be

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able to preach that message. But here's the thing. I do believe in

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seasonal boundaries. When you're healing, that's important. But I do not

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believe in eternal boundaries because Jesus did not come up to me and say,

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kevin, I forgive you. Now I don't want anything to do with you for the

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rest of your life. He says, I forgive you. Now come back in.

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Let's try this again. And if we are to forgive

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as the Lord forgave, then guess what it is. Chance

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after chance after chance after chance after

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chance. And you, my friends. Kevin, I

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have the opportunity this week, today, to

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release, to surrender, to forgive, so that my life

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can be radically changed. And I won't just walk with somebody who's got Jesus on

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my shirt praising the Lord on all the situations that are

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going well. But I could be a testimony of Christ

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to a dying world in situations that look ugly, that

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look bad, that are fueled with hurt, hurt and woundedness, and all of those things

Speaker: 00:41:30

that they can say, wow, I can't believe that Kevin had

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compassion on that person who didn't deserve it.

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We've been talking all year about the greatest stories

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ever told. What if one of your greatest stories was that this

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year you decided to let go, surrender and forgive somebody. Forgive

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the unforgivable. And somebody says to you, how'd you

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do it? And you say, I couldn't.

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It was the power of the Holy

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Spirit.

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True forgiveness draws circles, not lines. Martha was not

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irritated with a stranger. She was irritated with someone she loved.

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Have you ever been irritated with somebody you love? Some of y' all

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are irritated with the person you're sitting next to right now.

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Not every person is a blessing, but every single person is a lesson.

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And as people marked by forgiveness, we ought to also be people marked

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by gratitude. Jesus

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said, few things are needed. Indeed, only one.

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There are some important people in my life that have

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been in my Life. Some of these people, you know,

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the man on the left, his name is Mike Gibson. And Mr.

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Mike, man, he was such a blessing to my life. There was a season when

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I was being. I was the youth pastor and I was with the youth. And

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man, I just, I felt alone. I felt like I didn't have any support.

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I don't mean that this was true, but this is how I felt. I didn't

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have any support. I didn't have people rallying around me. And I went and I

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shared that with the elders. And do you know that that next week Mr. Mike

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came up to you youth. And every week after that, he came up and just

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stood there and all he did was pray for me. Said, I'm here, what do

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you need? I'm here for you. The second lady, or the first lady in

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the picture, her name is Rena Montgomery. Rena was my bus driver as a high

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school student. She was the very first person who said anything to me

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when I came to Smyrna assembly. I dawned the doors. I saw two things in

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that old sanctuary. I saw a disco ball and I saw Rena Montgomery.

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Rena screamed out loud. She was so excited to see me.

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And she was a blessing and an encouragement to my life. And the last one

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there, her name is Margaret Meek. She was the kids pastor here forever. And she

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was like a second mom to me. I will tell you right

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now, I would not be lead pastor of this church had it not been for

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this woman and her investment in my life. Now, the things

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outside of them having significant impact in my life. The things that these three have

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in common is that they're all with Jesus, Jesus right now.

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Margaret, at our funeral, Arwen, her

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daughter got up and said, you know,

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oftentimes we look for extraordinary moves of God and

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extraordinary moments, and we think that those are the moments we're going to remember most

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to the people we're closest with. But she said, that's not what I

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found with my mom. She was talking about Margaret. She said,

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I find it in the ordinary days. And so

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with that I got a little plaque that or a little thing that I put

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in my office and it says, enjoy the gift

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of the ordinary. Enjoy

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the gift of the ordinary. Guys, if you're carrying this,

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don't let this become ordinary. You have the choice

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to not let this be the ordinary. This could be the

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ordinary. And I tell you, this is so much more fun and more delicious,

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more filling.

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So what I say is, if I were to see, I

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don't know what's going on right now with the clicker. But if I were to

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see these three people, if I were to see these three people again,

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I wouldn't spend time. If I, you know, have you ever. Has anybody ever had

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somebody pass away and you're like, if I had one more moment. Moment. If I

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had 30 more seconds, if I had one more minute. If I had whatever.

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I wish I had one more minute with each of those. I wouldn't tell them,

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look what I've done. Look what I've. See, See what? What's happened in my life.

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I wouldn't say that to them. I probably wouldn't even say I love them. I

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wouldn't ask them what it is to be like to be with Jesus. I would

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simply say two words to them. Thank you.

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Thank you. Now, here's what

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I've learned this year. You are

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probably sitting by a person with whom you

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are so grateful for, yet it has

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been an eternity since you have actually conveyed your gratitude

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to them. Well, they know. They know. They live with

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me. They see it. They know. And you haven't put in words. And I don't

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know what that is, that little wall that comes. You're closest to that person

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yet. It just seems so hard to actually express gratitude. Well, guess what?

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I'm about to give you an opportunity today because this is going to be a

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different year. 2025 is going to be a different year. It's going to be a

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year where Thanksgiving is just the springboard to a lifestyle of

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gratitude. And so everyone, on most of the chairs, there was this

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thank you card. This was just a reminder because

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your someone may not be next to you right now,

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but I'm going to ask you to do something in the next few moments. They

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may be sitting across the room here, they may be sitting next to you, but

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we're just going to take a few moments. We're going to steal a few

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moments here and we're just going to look people eyeball to eyeball. And

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you're not just going to say thank you. You're not going to say Ty or

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happy Thanksgiving. You're going to

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say Barbie, I'm so grateful that you see me, me. I'm so

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grateful for the way that you have run beside me so faithfully all these years.

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The way that you lift my arms and you encourage me. I'm so grateful

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for the staple that you're in my life. The person who never wavers,

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never goes away. The rock that I can lean on

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if I'm in distress or if I'm discouraged. I can always count on you. The

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moments when I ran after other things. I looked back and those things fell in

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shambles. And you were always there. You never wavered on me. And I'm so

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grateful for your friendship. Thank.

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To express our gratitude to one another. Put it into words.

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Now. Allow the Lord to begin to develop a

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culture of gratitude within your life and within this house.

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Would you stand with me? And we're going to take the next few moments and

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you move about the room as you need to. And let's give thanks today.