How to Speak God's Love Language

Gratitude is something that scientifically cannot exist in the presence of anxiety in your brain. So if you want the antidote to your stress, come hear this. You’ll be thankful you did.

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    We're talking about gratitude today,
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    and I'm sure I'm not the only parent who's like this.
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    I love all the little tchotchke things my kids
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    have given me over the years as their dad. Right?
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    I love them.
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    And my wife, we're the same way.
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    So I've got one right here. Here's one of my faves.
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    My son Samuel made this work of art,
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    and if you can't see it, it says Best Dad.
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    And then he has me standing on top of the house
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    with a cape on my back, and he's even penciled in
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    my goatee in his drawing.
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    So I love that. I love this.
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    I keep this on my desk here at Crossroads.
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    This is my son, Nathan, who who actually
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    is quite a bit larger than this right now.
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    This is when he was little.
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    He made me this cute little daddy frame.
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    He's almost as tall as me now.
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    So this is going back some years.
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    And then my dear daughter Isabelle is an artist.
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    She made this abstract snowman art for me
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    a couple Christmases ago.
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    And I just keep all of these things.
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    I'm sure I'm not the only parent like that.
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    And so actually, what I'm going to do for
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    the rest of our time, I have binders of this stuff.
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    I'm just going to go through all of it one by one.
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    No, I'm not. I'm not going to do that.
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    I'm not going to do that.
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    But I love all of these.
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    My wife and I, we keep all of these.
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    Why do we keep that?
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    Why is it so delightful for me?
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    I mean, look, I love my kids
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    and my kids actually do have artistic ability,
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    but this isn't like Banksy level quality stuff.
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    I'm not saying it is, but why is it so precious to me?
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    Here's the question I want you to think about today.
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    Maybe I delight in the ways that my kids recognize me
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    and thank me because God is that way toward us,
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    because God is that way toward you and I.
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    I don't know -- I do know this:
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    God does not need your gratitude.
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    He's not wringing His hands right now saying,
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    "Oh, it's Sunday morning.
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    I hope they're going to be people singing
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    in church this morning to me."
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    No, He doesn't need our gratitude.
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    But you know what? He loves your gratitude.
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    He loves it when you and I say thank you
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    in the same way that a good father loves it
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    when their kids recognize them.
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    And so today, as we talk about gratitude,
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    we want to talk about what does it teach us
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    about God's character and what does it teach us
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    about how we also get blessed by the act of gratitude?
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    Let's pray.
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    God, I ask that you would just bring this
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    into focus for all of us.
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    I believe that all of us, God, have an opportunity
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    today to maybe have a surprise,
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    to see something surprising about Your heart,
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    about who You are
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    and the relationship that You want for us.
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    And so I'm praying that all of us
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    would open that surprise today.
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    That You would, through the power of your Holy Spirit,
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    show us new truth, show us a picture of who You are
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    that's different than what we have right now.
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    And I pray that in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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    This is a really good book, Five Love Languages.
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    And one of the quotes in the book
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    is from a psychologist. It says this:
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    The need to feel appreciated is so important to all of us.
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    And so there's something that we learn about God through that.
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    And we're learning it today
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    through the lens of the book of Leviticus.
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    Leviticus, as you saw in the opening video,
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    one of the oldest books in the Bible.
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    It's a book that can be complicated.
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    It's a book that has a lot of maybe confusing things.
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    There's an altar, there's a whole bunch of blood
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    about sacrifices in the altar.
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    There's all kinds of things in Leviticus
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    that can be confusing to us to understand.
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    And yet I love what Brian said the first week of this series.
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    If you're going to understand Jesus,
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    you have to understand Leviticus.
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    And every week we're looking at 5 of these altar offerings
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    that God instituted through the book of Leviticus
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    for the Nation of Israel, because they teach us
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    something about God and they also teach us
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    something about Jesus.
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    And that's definitely true with the offering
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    we're going to look at today.
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    But the idea today is through this offering,
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    the grain offering we're talking about,
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    and I don't typically title my messages,
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    but I'm titling this one
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    How to Speak God's Love Language.
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    We're going to learn today
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    how to speak God's love language
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    and His love language is gratitude.
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    His love language is thankfulness.
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    Thankfulness is a powerful, powerful reality in our world.
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    Just look at some of these statistics.
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    This is from Forbes.com.
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    That's how important being thanked
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    is to us as human beings.
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    How about this one?
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    It doesn't mean that they may not want more money.
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    It doesn't mean that they're leaving
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    maybe for another opportunity.
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    But 79% say one of the reasons I'm leaving this job
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    and going to another job
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    is because I don't feel appreciated.
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    How about this one?
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    Something we need, but something that so many of us
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    feel like we're lacking in our lives.
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    So, hey, I know we've got some leaders,
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    we've got some entrepreneurs, some people who own businesses.
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    Maybe you're a principal of a school,
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    maybe you manage a team in some other context.
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    Hey, I want to help you reduce employee turnover.
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    I want to help you on your bottom line.
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    This week, in the next seven days,
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    just say thank you to the people who work for you.
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    And guess what?
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    Your boss wants to be thanked, too.
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    So if you're not a manager,
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    that means you have a manager
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    and most of us have a manager.
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    Some time in the next seven days,
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    just say thank you to the person who you work for.
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    The power of thankfulness is really deep.
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    And I think it's that way for us
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    because it's that way with God.
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    And so we see that through this grain offering,
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    which shows up in the book of Leviticus chapter two.
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    This is what it says in verse one.
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    So this is the place where we see the grain offering
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    described in the book of Leviticus.
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    And I want to teach you a Hebrew word today.
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    It's a Hebrew word that the person in front of you
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    might not appreciate you saying, because
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    we're going to try to pronounce it
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    the way it's pronounced in the Hebrew language.
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    The word is Mincha. Mincha. M-I-N-C-H-A. Minka.
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    So on the count of three, I want all of us
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    at all of our sites, if you're watching at home,
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    to say the word Mincha, on the count of three.
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    One, two, three. AUDIENCE: Mincha.
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    - That's right.
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    If you felt a little moisture in the back of your head,
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    the person behind you did it right.
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    Mincha. Mincha.
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    This word Mincha is actually the word for offering.
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    It means to offer up something in gratitude.
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    And often times it was used for a broader sense of offerings.
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    But often it was also including
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    something that had to do with food.
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    And so here's how this Mincha worked.
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    Here's how the grain Mincha worked.
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    You and I, if we were the people who were bringing the offering,
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    we would bring to God the first of our grain,
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    the fine flour that we've meshed out of wheat
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    that we will use to make bread,
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    which was essential to life in the Middle East,
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    still is essential to life everywhere in the world.
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    We would bring that to the tabernacle.
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    This kind of soft structure
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    is meant to represent the tabernacle,
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    the tent of meeting where God dwelled with His people
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    and where he gave them the book of Leviticus,
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    these instructions.
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    So you would bring your grain, your Mincha offering,
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    and what you would do is you would give it
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    to the priest or to the priests sons because
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    their job was to offer the sacrifices
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    for the people to God.
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    They were kind of the go between.
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    And the priests would take from
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    whatever you gave them of the grain.
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    They'd take a little bit of it and they would,
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    you know, offer it on the altar and it would be burned up.
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    And then the rest of the offering,
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    they would actually get to keep as the priest.
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    It was their income. They didn't have a garden.
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    They didn't have a place where they were growing crops.
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    So the way that the Levites, the priests were fed
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    and cared for and their families is from the Mincha,
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    the offerings of the people
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    after they had offered that small sacrifice to God,
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    they got to keep the rest.
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    This is the grain offering.
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    A couple of other things that
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    are important to know about this offering.
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    One is that God required this offering
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    to be given with some salt.
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    I've got to tell you, I love the fact that
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    God is saying, "If you're going to bring me some food,
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    I want a little seasoning on that."
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    I mean, can I get an amen, somebody?
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    Like, I want a little flavor in my food.
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    I love that God is saying,
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    "Don't just give me this bland stuff.
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    I want a little salt on the offering."
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    We'll talk about why that salt was so important
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    a little bit later.
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    Another thing is He says
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    this cannot be offered with honey or yeast,
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    so it had to be unleavened bread.
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    And the reason for that is because yeast
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    and honey would rot on the altar and it would spoil things.
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    So that was the reason for that.
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    But here's the other thing
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    that I think is interesting about this offering.
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    There was no required amount of grain.
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    You know, we've talked about, and Brian,
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    if you were here a couple of weeks ago,
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    he did an offering that was around lambs and goats.
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    Well, you can't offer half of a lamb.
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    You're either all in or you're all out. Right?
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    But in this case, it allowed for people
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    who had much to offer their much,
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    but people who had little to offer their little.
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    And that tells us something about God's heart
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    behind instituting this grain offering.
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    You could say this: the grain offering
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    was really about reminding people
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    and for people to say to God,
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    "I recognize that You are my ultimate source for everything."
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    And so out of what you have given Me,
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    I am giving back to you."
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    You could say the grain offering
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    is a sacrifice of gratitude.
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    It's a sacrifice of gratitude.
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    And in this sacrifice, the way that God describes it
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    and instructs the people to do it,
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    we learn three things about how to say thank you to God.
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    Number one, we learn that God wants our best.
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    God wants our best. Think about it.
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    Grain was unspeakably valuable to people who lived in a desert.
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    Grain, wheat, what they needed to make bread,
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    unspeakably valuable to them.
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    And so for them to offer that to God was for them
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    to literally offer the source of life to God.
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    It was them giving God their very, very best.
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    And it took remarkable trust to do this.
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    I mean, I'm sure in a room this size
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    we've got some green thumbs.
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    Raise your hand if you're a green thumb,
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    like, you can grow anything.
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    You can bring plants back to life.
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    I mean, yeah, there are people like that in this room.
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    That is not me. That is not me.
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    I have plants and I kill plants.
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    That's what I do.
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    I have them and then I kill them.
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    And so my wife is a green thumb.
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    I am not.
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    And so, but here's the thing.
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    All the plants that I have killed,
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    and there have been many, sadly, there have been many.
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    My sustenance didn't depend on any of those plants.
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    So yeah, I was bummed that the plant didn't live,
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    but it wasn't like I wasn't going to eat.
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    Can you imagine living in a desert, raising grain?
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    And if it doesn't work out for you,
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    if you don't have a green thumb,
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    if you don't figure out how to coax those stalks
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    out of that soil and how to make sure
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    that you water it enough appropriately,
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    how to make sure that you keep it away
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    from all of the other things
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    that would want to take it from you.
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    If you don't figure that out,
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    your family's life is on the line.
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    So to give God grain was to literally give God your best.
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    And so when the people offered it to God,
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    they were saying, "God, You're worthy of our best.
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    You're worthy of our sacrifice."
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    I mean, remember, this is a society
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    where, you know, we get upset about rain.
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    We get upset that it's March
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    and we still have snow in the forecast.
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    I get upset that we're still in March
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    and there's snow in the forecast. Right?
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    But they celebrated all kinds of precipitation
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    because they desperately needed it.
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    They didn't have Kroger. Right?
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    They didn't have Target.
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    They couldn't just go and get a loaf of bread.
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    They didn't have whole paycheck, I mean, Whole Foods.
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    So they couldn't go and do that either, right?
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    Like, so these are people who were dependent
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    on what came out of the ground.
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    And so if they wanted it, they had to work for it.
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    And so to give it to God was basically saying,
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    "God, we're saying you are more important
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    than the source of our life, and in fact,
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    you are the ultimate source of our life."
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    So it was a way for them to symbolize
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    God wants our best and we're giving our best to God.
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    Second thing we learn, though, is that God wants our hearts.
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    God wants our hearts in generosity.
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    I think that's why it didn't matter what the amount was,
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    because God wasn't He wasn't after something
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    in terms of, like, you've got to give me this much.
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    This wasn't transactional for God.
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    I believe it was relational.
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    In the same way that I don't care
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    what my kids use to create something for me.
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    I don't -- I don't care if they use ceramics
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    or if they bought it from a store
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    or if they made it with their hands.
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    What I care about is the fact
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    that my kid was thinking about me
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    and they took the time to get something
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    so they could communicate, "Dad, I'm thinking about you."
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    That's all that I care about.
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    And I think the same way, that's what God cared about in this.
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    Which means we all have grain to share.
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    This isn't something that's reserved for the uber wealthy.
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    This isn't something that's cut off
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    from those who don't have much.
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    We all have grain to share.
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    And gratitude in some ways is us offering our grain to God.
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    Now, I will say this.
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    I know that for many of us, me included,
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    sometimes it's hard to be thankful
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    or sometimes it's hard to produce that gratitude,
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    to produce that grain for God
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    when things are going hard, when things are difficult.
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    Sometimes it's easy, right? Things are going well.
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    You just got something new.
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    You just got a promotion.
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    It's easy to then in those moments say,
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    "Oh, I'm thankful to God,"
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    and rattle off the goodness in your life.
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    But when things are hard, it's harder to bring that grain.
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    But even in the most difficult days of my life,
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    I have learned there is still grain to offer to God.
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    When I lost my father, I was surrounded by friendship
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    and community like you couldn't imagine.
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    So even in the midst of that loss,
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    there was the grain of gratitude
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    that I am not grieving alone.
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    When I've had illness or other things impact me
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    or other people in my family, there have been
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    these moments of recognizing, "You know what?
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    This is putting into perspective
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    how important this person is in my life.
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    And so even though we're not in a good place right now
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    and I want to see them healed,
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    God, I am thankful for every minute, every year,
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    every memory that I've had with this person."
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    Because there's grain and gratitude,
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    even on the hardest days of our lives.
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    May not be easy to give it,
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    but there's always grain to give to God.
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    And what God wants is our hearts.
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    I also said that God wanted this to be a salty offering.
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    He wanted to be a salty offering.
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    In Leviticus 2:2 God says When you offer this this way,
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    it actually is a pleasing aroma to my nostrils,
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    is what God says.
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    Now, here's what's interesting about that.
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    God is a spirit, and spirits don't have noses.
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    So why is God saying in this moment,
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    "When you offer this and your whole heart,
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    it's a pleasing aroma to me"?
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    I think it's this, God was trying to communicate
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    in human terms a supernatural reality
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    that even though we are created beings,
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    we have the ability to delight our creator.
  • 00:15:43
    We have the ability to make the creator of the universe
  • 00:15:47
    smile in the same way that when I see
  • 00:15:50
    what my kids have given me, it makes me smile.
  • 00:15:53
    God wants your heart.
  • 00:15:55
    And when you give your heart to Him in gratitude,
  • 00:15:57
    He smiles, He rejoices, He delights in that.
  • 00:16:02
    It's a beautiful aspect of who He is.
  • 00:16:05
    But there's another meaning to this salt,
  • 00:16:07
    and it's actually why He smiles when you are grateful.
  • 00:16:10
    The salt, or salt in general in those days,
  • 00:16:13
    was a preservative, right?
  • 00:16:14
    It was meant to help things last.
  • 00:16:17
    And so in this description of Leviticus 2
  • 00:16:20
    and the grain offering, God uses this phrase.
  • 00:16:23
    He says when you put the salt on it,
  • 00:16:25
    it's a reminder of the salt of the covenant.
  • 00:16:28
    See, God created a relationship
  • 00:16:30
    with the Nation of Israel that was
  • 00:16:32
    an unconditional love relationship, very much like
  • 00:16:35
    the relationship between a parent and a child,
  • 00:16:37
    very much like the relationship between
  • 00:16:39
    a committed spouse to another.
  • 00:16:41
    It was a covenant relationship.
  • 00:16:43
    It was a always and forever, never stopping,
  • 00:16:45
    not going to give up kind of relationship.
  • 00:16:47
    And so God wanted a little bit of salt
  • 00:16:50
    on the grain offering so that the giver of the offering
  • 00:16:53
    would be reminded that just like this salt preserves,
  • 00:16:56
    God's love for you will preserve,
  • 00:16:59
    that you'll never do anything that will cause
  • 00:17:02
    the Father of the Universe once you have come back
  • 00:17:04
    into relationship with Him through Jesus
  • 00:17:06
    and you're in that covenant relationship,
  • 00:17:07
    He will never leave you, He will never forsake you,
  • 00:17:10
    He will never abandon you.
  • 00:17:12
    He wants you to know that that salt of the covenant
  • 00:17:15
    is true of His love for you and for me.
  • 00:17:17
    It's beautiful.
  • 00:17:18
    So God is giving all of these pictures to the people
  • 00:17:21
    as they give this grain offering to Him.
  • 00:17:23
    Because God wants our heart and God wants our best.
  • 00:17:28
    But the third thing is this: God wants gratitude for you
  • 00:17:34
    far more than He needs it from you.
  • 00:17:38
    He wants it for you and for me.
  • 00:17:40
    Notice this.
  • 00:17:42
    God says there's two parts to the grain offering.
  • 00:17:46
    There's the part that's called the memorial part
  • 00:17:48
    that gets burned on the altar. Right?
  • 00:17:50
    And after that, it has no other useful life.
  • 00:17:52
    It's burnt.
  • 00:17:53
    Like that's all that that was meant to do.
  • 00:17:55
    But He says the most holy part of the offering,
  • 00:17:58
    actually the greater part of the offering,
  • 00:18:00
    the better part of the offering is the 90%, the 95%,
  • 00:18:04
    whatever it is of the offering
  • 00:18:05
    that the priest actually gets to enjoy.
  • 00:18:09
    Even in giving to God, God is giving to us.
  • 00:18:14
    Even the sacrifice that He requires from us
  • 00:18:18
    is actually something He wants for us.
  • 00:18:22
    I think about this as a father.
  • 00:18:24
    On Father's Day we have a tradition in my family,
  • 00:18:27
    and often times for the last several years
  • 00:18:29
    we've been in Naples, Florida, for Father's Day.
  • 00:18:31
    And so one of the things we always do
  • 00:18:33
    is we go to the same restaurant there, Pinchers,
  • 00:18:35
    and we go out to dinner for Father's Day.
  • 00:18:36
    And it's an opportunity for me
  • 00:18:38
    to be with my family on Father's Day.
  • 00:18:40
    And I love it. We get dressed up.
  • 00:18:42
    The kids have given me little cards.
  • 00:18:43
    You know, Maria has done her thing,
  • 00:18:45
    Like, it's beautiful. I love it.
  • 00:18:46
    But guess what? And dads are with me on this.
  • 00:18:49
    At the end of that meal,
  • 00:18:50
    when the server comes and brings the check,
  • 00:18:53
    guess who they bring the check to?
  • 00:18:57
    The same person who pays the check
  • 00:18:59
    every other time we go out to dinner.
  • 00:19:01
    I get the check, right?
  • 00:19:02
    My kids are celebrating me,
  • 00:19:04
    but I'm paying for it, right?
  • 00:19:07
    Can I get an amen
  • 00:19:08
    from the parents in the house on that one? Right.
  • 00:19:10
    Same with Christmas.
  • 00:19:11
    Like, my kids, they blow my mind on Christmas
  • 00:19:14
    because they'll think of, like, little things
  • 00:19:15
    I haven't thought about but they've been noticing
  • 00:19:18
    that I need that maybe need replaced or whatever.
  • 00:19:20
    And so their gifts are always really thoughtful
  • 00:19:23
    and really special.
  • 00:19:24
    But if you follow the money trail on those gifts,
  • 00:19:26
    it's going to go back to not their W-2,
  • 00:19:29
    it's not going to go back to their paycheck.
  • 00:19:31
    It's going to go back to my paycheck. Right?
  • 00:19:34
    I'm paying for the gifts that my kids give me.
  • 00:19:36
    But can I tell you something?
  • 00:19:38
    I don't care. I don't care.
  • 00:19:40
    I will pay for my kids to celebrate me at dinner.
  • 00:19:44
    I will pay for my kids to give me gifts
  • 00:19:46
    because I love my kids and I love it
  • 00:19:49
    that my kids want to celebrate me.
  • 00:19:51
    And I want you to know God is the same way with you.
  • 00:19:54
    Everything you offer to God, He gave to you first.
  • 00:19:57
    Everything.
  • 00:19:58
    Your words, your voice, your time,
  • 00:20:00
    your presence, your talents.
  • 00:20:02
    But God does not care that He was the giver of it.
  • 00:20:05
    When you give it back to him in gratitude,
  • 00:20:07
    He loves it, y'all. He loves it.
  • 00:20:10
    He loves it. [cheers and applause]
  • 00:20:14
    You can't outgive God.
  • 00:20:18
    But you don't have to because God loves it
  • 00:20:22
    when his kids recognize Him.
  • 00:20:24
    And so isn't it interesting that even gratitude,
  • 00:20:27
    even the act of gratitude, does way more for you
  • 00:20:31
    than it does for God?
  • 00:20:32
    You guys have seen the science on this.
  • 00:20:34
    Let me just remind you,
  • 00:20:35
    gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety,
  • 00:20:39
    difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease.
  • 00:20:42
    I found an article from a PhD. He said this:
  • 00:20:47
    He goes on to say:
  • 00:21:07
    And I love this line. This was the punch line for me.
  • 00:21:13
    Isn't that true?
  • 00:21:15
    If you could get from a pill
  • 00:21:18
    what you can get from being thankful to God,
  • 00:21:20
    you'd be beating down the door of your physician to get it.
  • 00:21:23
    Isn't God good
  • 00:21:25
    that even in giving you the command to be grateful,
  • 00:21:28
    He is giving you something that is far better for you
  • 00:21:31
    than what He needs from you.
  • 00:21:34
    Gratitude is for us.
  • 00:21:37
    You know, if someone were to ask me
  • 00:21:39
    what's your biggest vision for your kids?
  • 00:21:43
    What's your greatest desire for your kids?
  • 00:21:46
    I often use this verse to answer that question.
  • 00:21:49
    There's a small letter in the New Testament, 3 John.
  • 00:21:51
    And 3 John 4 says this:
  • 00:21:58
    And as a father, that's what I want
  • 00:22:00
    more than anything else for my kids.
  • 00:22:02
    I have no greater joy than knowing that
  • 00:22:04
    Nathan, Isabelle and Samuel are walking in the truth.
  • 00:22:08
    And here's what I want you to know.
  • 00:22:09
    When you and I are walking in gratitude toward God,
  • 00:22:12
    we are walking in the truth.
  • 00:22:14
    We are walking in the truth.
  • 00:22:16
    We're walking in the truth that God is good to us.
  • 00:22:19
    We're seeing God rightly.
  • 00:22:20
    We're seeing His kindness, rightly.
  • 00:22:22
    We're seeing His mercy rightly.
  • 00:22:23
    We're seeing His love rightly.
  • 00:22:25
    We're seeing His forgiveness rightly.
  • 00:22:27
    We're seeing His generosity rightly
  • 00:22:29
    when we are walking in gratitude.
  • 00:22:32
    And not only are we seeing God rightly when we do that,
  • 00:22:35
    we're seeing ourselves rightly too.
  • 00:22:38
    We're seeing that we are the objects of His love.
  • 00:22:40
    We're seeing that we are the objects of His mercy,
  • 00:22:43
    that we're the objects of His kindness,
  • 00:22:44
    that He has forgiven us.
  • 00:22:46
    So I have no greater joy
  • 00:22:47
    and I believe God has no greater joy than knowing
  • 00:22:50
    that his children are walking in gratitude
  • 00:22:52
    because when we walk in gratitude
  • 00:22:53
    we're walking in the truth.
  • 00:22:56
    And here's why.
  • 00:22:58
    Because our gratitude is how God knows
  • 00:23:01
    we understand the gravity of His kindness toward us.
  • 00:23:05
    I told you that everything that we see in Leviticus
  • 00:23:08
    points to Jesus in some way.
  • 00:23:10
    I want to show you the beautiful connection
  • 00:23:13
    of what God instituted thousands of years ago
  • 00:23:15
    in a tent for the Nation of Israel
  • 00:23:17
    and how it connects to Jesus today.
  • 00:23:20
    Right now we're celebrating the season of Lent
  • 00:23:23
    in the calendar of the church,
  • 00:23:25
    the 40 days leading up to Easter,
  • 00:23:28
    the 38 days, if you will, leading up to Good Friday,
  • 00:23:32
    where we remember Jesus dying on a Cross for us,
  • 00:23:35
    sacrificing Himself for us,
  • 00:23:37
    and then ultimately looking forward to Easter
  • 00:23:39
    when He rose and beat death and offered us a life
  • 00:23:43
    that we couldn't have without His power.
  • 00:23:46
    And so as we're thinking about this Lenten period,
  • 00:23:49
    this Lenten season, it was interesting to review
  • 00:23:51
    this grain offering in Leviticus.
  • 00:23:55
    Jesus gives Himself many names in the Scriptures.
  • 00:23:58
    One of the names that He gives Himself is He says,
  • 00:24:01
    "I am the Bread of Life."
  • 00:24:03
    The grain offering was an offering of the Bread of Life.
  • 00:24:08
    And interestingly, the grain offering was an offering,
  • 00:24:12
    the Mincha had to be offered at a certain time of the day,
  • 00:24:15
    the ninth hour.
  • 00:24:18
    The ninth hour in the way that the Jewish people
  • 00:24:21
    looked at time, the first hour was 6 a.m.,
  • 00:24:24
    so the ninth hour would have been 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
  • 00:24:27
    So when you were bringing your Mincha,
  • 00:24:29
    that wasn't an offering for the morning.
  • 00:24:30
    Your Mincha wasn't an offering for the evening.
  • 00:24:33
    The Mincha offering, the grain offering,
  • 00:24:36
    was offered at 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
  • 00:24:39
    Interestingly, not coincidentally, the Bible
  • 00:24:42
    was very clear in all four accounts of
  • 00:24:44
    the four gospels of Jesus's crucifixion
  • 00:24:47
    that it was at the ninth hour
  • 00:24:48
    when Jesus breathed His last breath.
  • 00:24:50
    It was the ninth hour when Jesus became
  • 00:24:54
    the ultimate Mincha sacrifice of God.
  • 00:24:57
    God gave us His best in sacrificing Jesus for us.
  • 00:25:00
    God gave us His heart in sacrificing Jesus for us.
  • 00:25:04
    And He did that for us
  • 00:25:05
    more than He needed anything from us
  • 00:25:08
    because Jesus was God's ultimate Mincha
  • 00:25:10
    so we would know how much our Father loves us.
  • 00:25:14
    Powerful connection to who Jesus is.
  • 00:25:18
    So every time they were burning this offering,
  • 00:25:21
    every time they were doing this,
  • 00:25:22
    they were preparing their hearts for the time
  • 00:25:24
    when God would make the ultimate Mincha,
  • 00:25:26
    the ultimate sacrifice of the Bread of Life.
  • 00:25:30
    And so Paul is reflecting on this
  • 00:25:32
    as he's writing to people in the New Testament.
  • 00:25:34
    And in Ephesians 5:2 he says this:
  • 00:25:45
    There's that sweet smelling aroma.
  • 00:25:47
    This is all connected to who Jesus is.
  • 00:25:50
    It's all connected to what Jesus did for us.
  • 00:25:53
    Then Paul says how do we respond? Romans 12:1 he says:
  • 00:25:57
    I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,
  • 00:25:59
    by the mercies of God, in view of God's Mincha --
  • 00:26:02
    in view of God's sacrifice,
  • 00:26:04
    to present your bodies a living Minka.
  • 00:26:07
    It's the same word, living sacrifice,
  • 00:26:09
    holy and acceptable to God,
  • 00:26:11
    which is your spiritual act of worship.
  • 00:26:14
    It might be that the greatest indicator
  • 00:26:18
    that you actually are a follower of Jesus,
  • 00:26:21
    even more than your love for other people,
  • 00:26:24
    might be your gratitude toward God.
  • 00:26:28
    One author put it this way:
  • 00:26:38
    God wants to make a home in a grateful heart.
  • 00:26:42
    He wants to make a home in the heart who's willing
  • 00:26:46
    to offer gratitude, Minka sacrifice to Him.
  • 00:26:49
    And so may we be those people,
  • 00:26:51
    may we be people whose hearts are so moved to gratitude
  • 00:26:54
    because of the kindness of our Father toward us
  • 00:26:57
    that we say in return, "God, we give you our lives
  • 00:27:01
    as an ultimate sacrifice."
  • 00:27:03
    Recently I had a conversation with Justin Mosteller,
  • 00:27:06
    who's on the worship team here at Crossroads.
  • 00:27:09
    And he was telling me a story.
  • 00:27:10
    And it so resonated with this theme
  • 00:27:12
    that I asked him if he'd be willing to come and share.
  • 00:27:14
    So Justin's coming up now.
  • 00:27:16
    Let's give it up for Justin Mosteller
  • 00:27:18
    as he comes and joins me up here.
  • 00:27:23
    - Hey. Hey, y'all. Thanks for having me, buddy.
  • 00:27:24
    - Absolutely, man. - Yeah, man.
  • 00:27:26
    - So thinking back, I think this was
  • 00:27:28
    a hallway conversation during the Super Bowl service.
  • 00:27:30
    - That's right.
  • 00:27:31
    We see less of each other these days.
  • 00:27:33
    I know.
  • 00:27:34
    So Super Bowl we got to catch up.
  • 00:27:36
    - And you were talking to me about a bunch of things,
  • 00:27:38
    but specifically, you were talking to me
  • 00:27:40
    about your mother-in-law and how she's living this out.
  • 00:27:43
    So introduce us to your mother-in-law.
  • 00:27:45
    - That's right.
  • 00:27:46
    Well, there is -- I told Chuck this a few weeks ago.
  • 00:27:49
    There is no one in my life right now
  • 00:27:52
    who's giving God the sacrifice of gratitude
  • 00:27:54
    like my mother-in-law is.
  • 00:27:55
    And so I'm going to tell you some of her story,
  • 00:27:57
    with her full permission, mind you.
  • 00:27:59
    - Yes.
  • 00:28:00
    - But I want to introduce you to her.
  • 00:28:01
    So this is my mother-in-law, Sherri Covert,
  • 00:28:04
    and that's my wife and her sister, Becky.
  • 00:28:06
    They also have another sister not in that photo,
  • 00:28:08
    but that is my rock star mother-in-law.
  • 00:28:11
    I don't call her Sherri. I call her Grammy.
  • 00:28:13
    And you can, too.
  • 00:28:15
    So she is an amazing grandmother to my four kids.
  • 00:28:18
    And so I call her Grammy.
  • 00:28:20
    She's been a part of this church for several years,
  • 00:28:22
    in fact, she used to sit right down here in front.
  • 00:28:25
    And for the last several years,
  • 00:28:26
    she joins us every weekend from home.
  • 00:28:29
    And so I know she's watching now. So. Hi, Grammy.
  • 00:28:32
    Everybody join me. Say hi, Grammy.
  • 00:28:34
    Good morning. I love you.
  • 00:28:35
    Yeah. So that's my that's my Grammy.
  • 00:28:37
    Grammy. - Yeah.
  • 00:28:38
    And and the reason that she resonates with you
  • 00:28:41
    in terms of gratitude is because
  • 00:28:42
    she's been going through a really difficult time.
  • 00:28:44
    So talk about what her journey has been
  • 00:28:46
    in the last 4 or 5 years.
  • 00:28:48
    - Yeah, I mean, you said it earlier,
  • 00:28:49
    we have grain to give on the worst days of our life.
  • 00:28:52
    And you'll be tempted as you hear Grammy's story,
  • 00:28:55
    to think, "Well, these aren't the worst days of my life."
  • 00:28:57
    But here's what I want you to hear is
  • 00:28:59
    a challenge to each one of us:
  • 00:29:01
    What's the grain that we have
  • 00:29:03
    in the best days or worst days?
  • 00:29:05
    - That's good. - Her days have been hard.
  • 00:29:06
    In the last five years her life completely changed.
  • 00:29:10
    In February of 2018, she was diagnosed
  • 00:29:13
    with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
  • 00:29:16
    If you're like me, you didn't know exactly what that was.
  • 00:29:19
    But it's a lung disease.
  • 00:29:20
    And specifically it's the same lung disease
  • 00:29:23
    that her father passed away from
  • 00:29:25
    and that her sister was passing away from.
  • 00:29:28
    She was -- Grammy was diagnosed in February.
  • 00:29:31
    Her sister was passing away from it
  • 00:29:33
    and passed away in May with Grammy right by her side.
  • 00:29:37
    Her life completely changed that year
  • 00:29:40
    because Grammy was active, like,
  • 00:29:41
    Grammy was a nurse for 45 years of her life.
  • 00:29:45
    She was a NICU nurse down at UC Hospital
  • 00:29:47
    for 30 years of her life.
  • 00:29:48
    Incredible grandmother, all these things.
  • 00:29:51
    She thought she had plenty of active years ahead of her.
  • 00:29:54
    And yet after retirement, this is the hand she was dealt.
  • 00:29:59
    And for the last five years, what I would say is --
  • 00:30:01
    I talked to her this week and said,
  • 00:30:03
    we were just prepping for this.
  • 00:30:04
    And she said, "I want everybody to know there have been
  • 00:30:07
    dark days and bright days in the last five years."
  • 00:30:10
    She stands in gratitude today,
  • 00:30:11
    but that hasn't always been the case
  • 00:30:13
    in her journey through this because
  • 00:30:16
    she's mourned and grieved and lost.
  • 00:30:18
    And what I've seen from her is she could have chosen anger,
  • 00:30:23
    she could have chosen bitterness,
  • 00:30:25
    and all of us would have said,
  • 00:30:26
    "You've got every right to, Grammy.
  • 00:30:28
    You've got every right to be bitter and angry."
  • 00:30:30
    And yet she's continued to practice gratitude.
  • 00:30:34
    Like, her smile today lights up the whole room.
  • 00:30:37
    The hugs she gives my kids
  • 00:30:38
    are better than any gifts they could ask Grammy for.
  • 00:30:41
    She's chosen gratitude,
  • 00:30:44
    and I've seen her continually choose love
  • 00:30:46
    and be loved by God and love others, to choose trust
  • 00:30:50
    and to choose to worship God
  • 00:30:52
    right in the midst of her circumstances.
  • 00:30:54
    - That's powerful. - Yeah.
  • 00:30:55
    - That's powerful, man.
  • 00:30:56
    And actually, you had her in mind when you
  • 00:31:01
    and the music team wrote the song
  • 00:31:03
    that we sung that opened our time today, Grateful.
  • 00:31:05
    So talk about that. How did that connection happen?
  • 00:31:08
    - Yeah, well we started several months ago last year
  • 00:31:12
    just starting to write songs for our church.
  • 00:31:14
    And she was just in my mind.
  • 00:31:16
    I wanted to just see if we could write
  • 00:31:18
    the song that Grammy lives out every day.
  • 00:31:21
    Like, she just has motivated me, inspired me so much.
  • 00:31:24
    And so it was with her in mind that we started
  • 00:31:26
    to write this song called Grateful.
  • 00:31:28
    - Yeah. - And I remember finishing it
  • 00:31:30
    and you finish something and you're like,
  • 00:31:32
    "I don't know if there's anything here,"
  • 00:31:33
    but it was meaningful to me.
  • 00:31:35
    And so I sent it to her from Nashville that morning.
  • 00:31:37
    I sent it to her on a voice memo,
  • 00:31:39
    and she declared right then and there,
  • 00:31:40
    "This is my song."
  • 00:31:42
    So you may think it's your song.
  • 00:31:44
    I'm here to tell you Grammy disagrees,
  • 00:31:46
    and I'm not going to disagree with her.
  • 00:31:48
    - Don't argue with Grammy. - This is her song.
  • 00:31:50
    And she has continually carried this song since then.
  • 00:31:54
    And I'll tell you this.
  • 00:31:55
    Here's what I asked Grammy this week.
  • 00:31:58
    I said, "Grammy, what would you tell our church
  • 00:32:01
    about the sacrifice of gratitude?"
  • 00:32:04
    Here's her answer:
  • 00:32:06
    It is a continuous commitment
  • 00:32:08
    that has grown in me over the years.
  • 00:32:10
    It feels more natural with frequent repetition.
  • 00:32:13
    And that's what it is.
  • 00:32:15
    She gets reps in it every day and she takes them.
  • 00:32:18
    And then she says these words:
  • 00:32:24
    I'm a little afraid of dying, the not knowing.
  • 00:32:30
    She was diagnosed five years ago
  • 00:32:32
    and we didn't know if it was a year or two years.
  • 00:32:34
    Every Christmas and every Thanksgiving
  • 00:32:36
    has been this may be the last one.
  • 00:32:38
    And yet five years later, she's still with us
  • 00:32:42
    and she says this:
  • 00:32:44
    I'm a little afraid of dying and the not knowing,
  • 00:32:46
    but this far into my disease, I can say
  • 00:32:48
    I'm not more afraid than at any other time in my life.
  • 00:32:52
    I feel I have had a lot of heaven here on earth.
  • 00:32:56
    I'm living in the presence of God,
  • 00:32:58
    a sense of sitting on His knee.
  • 00:33:00
    I am perfectly content knowing that I'm loved by Him.
  • 00:33:04
    I believe -- these are strong right here.
  • 00:33:08
    I believe that I will still have
  • 00:33:10
    pulmonary fibrosis when I die.
  • 00:33:12
    But I also believe that God has healed me completely.
  • 00:33:16
    He's brought me so much peace and wisdom
  • 00:33:18
    through the journey of my disease
  • 00:33:19
    that I feel healed and whole today.
  • 00:33:22
    Friends, that is what gratitude sounds like.
  • 00:33:25
    - Sacrifice of gratitude. Yeah. [applause]
  • 00:33:28
    - Can I show you a photo? - Yes.
  • 00:33:30
    - I want to show you another photo.
  • 00:33:31
    This is my favorite picture of Grammy
  • 00:33:33
    that she showed to me this week.
  • 00:33:36
    This is her standing in this auditorium
  • 00:33:38
    just a few months ago
  • 00:33:39
    on the night of our Thanksgiving Eve service.
  • 00:33:42
    She came.
  • 00:33:43
    She never thought she'd get to come back
  • 00:33:45
    to this auditorium, but she came
  • 00:33:46
    and sat right down here in front.
  • 00:33:47
    That's her standing connected to her oxygen,
  • 00:33:51
    standing out of her wheelchair with hands lifted high,
  • 00:33:54
    singing her song Grateful.
  • 00:33:57
    That is what gratitude looks like.
  • 00:33:59
    - Amen. - Yeah.
  • 00:34:01
    - Amen. Amen. Wow, brother, thank you for sharing that.
  • 00:34:05
    - Thank you.
  • 00:34:06
    - Offering that to our church. And man, I --
  • 00:34:09
    Justin told me that story, and I was like,
  • 00:34:11
    you know what? Grammy' leading us.
  • 00:34:13
    She's leading us in how to respond,
  • 00:34:16
    how to offer our Mincha of gratitude to God.
  • 00:34:19
    And so we're going to do something
  • 00:34:21
    that we usually don't do.
  • 00:34:23
    We usually kind of at this point have
  • 00:34:25
    all the different sites kind of have
  • 00:34:26
    their own local worship moment.
  • 00:34:28
    But we said, you know what?
  • 00:34:29
    What an opportunity for us as one church to offer
  • 00:34:32
    a sacrifice of gratitude to God together.
  • 00:34:34
    So I want to invite you to stand wherever you are,
  • 00:34:36
    whatever site you're in.
  • 00:34:39
    And maybe, maybe, maybe it's hard for you to offer
  • 00:34:41
    the grain of gratitude in this season of your life.
  • 00:34:44
    And I want you to be a person of integrity
  • 00:34:46
    and know you can be wherever you are
  • 00:34:48
    emotionally with God in this moment.
  • 00:34:50
    Maybe for you, it's easy to offer that grain.
  • 00:34:52
    I do know this, though. I know that gratitude.
  • 00:34:55
    Pleases the heart of your good Father.
  • 00:34:58
    And I know it does something for your heart
  • 00:35:00
    that nothing else can.
  • 00:35:01
    So let's sing this song as an act
  • 00:35:04
    of that Mincha sacrifice to a good Father together.
  • 00:35:07
    Let's sing.
  • 00:35:11
    - Sing for every breath.
  • 00:35:18
    For every breath that I have breathed
  • 00:35:23
    for every gift that I've received
  • 00:35:28
    for all the kindness you have so
  • 00:35:33
    I am grateful
  • 00:35:45
    Sing those words again.
  • 00:35:47
    For every breath that I have breathed
  • 00:35:53
    for every gift that I've received
  • 00:35:58
    for all the kindness you have shown
  • 00:36:03
    I am grateful to Jesus.
  • 00:36:10
    Jesus, I will sing,
  • 00:36:14
    oh, my soul shall ever be
  • 00:36:19
    from rising sun to end of day, oh, I am grateful
  • 00:36:36
    Gratitude for the work he's done.
  • 00:36:39
    For the Cross on which You died
  • 00:36:44
    and for the grave from which You rise
  • 00:36:49
    that I now stand, set free and saved
  • 00:36:55
    Oh, I am grateful
  • 00:37:01
    Yes, we are, right here God.
  • 00:37:05
    We give him our offering of gratitude.
  • 00:37:07
    Oh for the Cross on which you died
  • 00:37:13
    and for the grave from which You rise
  • 00:37:18
    that I now stand set free and saved
  • 00:37:24
    oh, I am grateful
  • 00:37:29
    Oh, Jesus, I will sing
  • 00:37:35
    and my soul shall ever be
  • 00:37:40
    from rising sun to end of day
  • 00:37:45
    I am grateful
  • 00:37:50
    Lift it up.
  • 00:37:51
    oh, Jesus, I will sing
  • 00:37:56
    and my soul shall ever be
  • 00:38:01
    from rising sun to end of day
  • 00:38:07
    I am grateful
  • 00:38:13
    I am grateful
  • 00:38:18
    I am grateful
  • 00:38:23
    [applause]
  • 00:38:34
    - God, what an amazing mystery it is
  • 00:38:37
    that our words of gratitude actually reach Your heart,
  • 00:38:42
    that they're are sweet smelling aroma to You.
  • 00:38:45
    God, we just want to leave here with a posture that says
  • 00:38:49
    even on the days when it's hard to bring our grain,
  • 00:38:52
    help us to find it.
  • 00:38:53
    Help us to find it, God.
  • 00:38:55
    I think about something that's been a mantra
  • 00:38:56
    that I've been using this year.
  • 00:38:58
    I wake up every day and say,
  • 00:38:59
    "This is the day the Lord has made.
  • 00:39:01
    I will be glad.
  • 00:39:02
    I will give thanks and be glad in it."
  • 00:39:04
    But then there's another part of that mantra
  • 00:39:06
    that's been really helpful that I learned from another teacher.
  • 00:39:08
    This is the day the Lord has made
  • 00:39:10
    and I will rejoice and be glad in it somehow.
  • 00:39:13
    Some days we got to put the somehow on that
  • 00:39:16
    because it might not be as clear.
  • 00:39:17
    But God, if this is a I will rejoice and be glad in a day
  • 00:39:21
    or a I will be rejoice and be glad in it somehow day,
  • 00:39:24
    in all of that, may it be a sweet smelling savor to You.
  • 00:39:27
    Thank You for the way You love us.
  • 00:39:29
    Thank You for the way You lead us.
  • 00:39:31
    Thank You for what You have given us in Jesus.
  • 00:39:33
    And it's in His name, I pray, Amen. Amen.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s your favorite way to receive appreciation from someone else?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message? Why did that spark for you?

  3. How does it make you feel when people express gratitude for who you are to them or for something you’ve done?

  4. What does the value God places on recognition show you about His character?

  5. How do you recognize God or express appreciation for the gifts He’s given you?

  6. What experiences or circumstances in your life right now make it difficult to show gratitude?

  7. Even though most of us don’t harvest literal grain, we all have “grain” to give. What could your grain offering be in your current situation?

  8. What’s one way you can recognize and appreciate God in a new way this week? Share your plan with the group.

  9. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for all the gifts you’ve given us. Thank you for giving us your life, your ultimate grain offering. Help us to cultivate grateful hearts, regardless of our current circumstances. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • When God asks for your best, how do you typically respond?
  • How do you think recognizing God for His gifts will impact your relationship with Him?
  • How would your life look different if you lived with a grateful heart?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Mar 12, 2023

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