Cultivating Gratitude

Well, good afternoon. Thank you very much for that beautiful piece of special music. It really reminds us of some really important facts and realities about our life today. I feel like I'm not looking at you guys. I feel like I'm going to have to turn over here. Also, I agree with you. It is nice to be really close. I feel like I can reach out and talk to you. It's really great. You can just like, hi, you're not in there to see it. We should try this in Arenda.

Anyway, I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and welcome to our guests and visitors. We've got people traveling who are not with us, and we've got people who are traveling with us. It's good to have you here and hold everybody on the webcast as well. You know, with the theme of Thanksgiving in mind, I'm going to start out with probably a kind of an interesting or maybe different introduction.

But this past week, the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, released a report detailing how life expectancy for Americans has declined every year since 2014. It shared how life expectancy increased steadily from 1959 to 2010, where it plateaued, and then it plateaued till 2014, and then it began to decline. And it's been declining ever since. Today, life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.6 years, so that's about 78 years and, you know, seven months or seven and a half months.

So if you're more than that, congratulations. You've beat the average in the United States, and that's down from 78.9 years in 2014. Now, what's even more remarkable about this study is that it shared that the United States is alone among the developed world in this trend. We're the only developed country in the world with declining life expectancies.

In fact, according to CBS News report, October 18, 2018, the U.S. ranked 43rd in the world in terms of life expectancy, and based on current trends, it will rank 64th by the year 2040. So, for example, if we lived in Japan, we would expect to live 85 years in two months. That's nearly seven years longer than in the United States, and Japan is a large, industrial, developed country. If we lived, for example, in Canada, just north of the border, or in France, we would expect to live, on average, about 82 years compared to our 78 or so, 0.6 or 78 and a half.

And yet, what many find most disturbing about this JAMA report is the reasons for the decline over the last three years. The leading causes relate to drug overdoses, suicide, alcohol abuse, and a variety of diverse organ failure related to various things, including obesity. These types of deaths have been called deaths of despair, and so our life expectancy in the United States is declining due to these types of deaths, these deaths of despair.

And although the JAMA report calls inconclusive the connection between what are called psychological disorders and these issues, it does point out that some studies suggest, and I'm quoting, that psychological distress, anxiety, and depression have increased in the United States, especially among adolescents and young adults. In fact, disturbingly, the largest increase in suicide rates are coming from people ages 5 to 14. Could you imagine? The largest increase in suicide is among ages 5 to 14. And the data shows that these issues cut across all racial backgrounds.

It used to be that racial minorities suffered lower life expectancy, and then that's still the case. But in terms of the declines, they cut across all racial groups. So it doesn't matter whether it's Hispanic or African American or white Caucasian. We are all dying earlier because of these deaths of despair, whether it's alcohol or drug or obesity, we're all equally impacted by these things. And there is no indication in the report that this trend is going to be reduced anytime soon. In other words, it appears that our life expectancy is going to continue to decline because these factors are so insidious to be able to address. Are you feeling thankful now?

That's kind of a little heavy, isn't it? How could we as Americans, blessed as we are with such prosperity and opportunities, be literally dying early from deaths of despair? What is behind that? In fact, this is the first time in the United States since World War I that life expectancy is now declining. And World War I was a war. That was one of the causes for life expectancy decline in 1917. Was World War I and the Spanish flu. There were major issues that affected our decline in life expectancy 100 years ago. And this is the first time we've seen this happen in this country in 100 years. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day this past Thursday, I think it's important that we examine whether the factors impacting our society as a whole could be affecting us as well.

And how being thankful for whatever state we might find ourselves in is so critical and so important as we'll see to be one of the single most powerful antidotes to society in dealing with these deaths from despair. We're going to look at the importance of cultivating gratitude today, and we're going to look at three points on how to cultivate gratitude. The title of today's message is Cultivating Gratitude. Let's begin in Philippians 4 verse 16.

Philippians 4 verse 6 and 7. We'll see here the Apostle Paul makes a connection between these issues that is about as clear as I think any connection could be made because I think God understood the types of challenges that we would face as human beings. Philippians 4 verse 6 and 7.

The Apostle Paul writes, Be anxious for nothing, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. In verse 7, In the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

And so we see here God inspiring the Apostle Paul to connect anxiousness or more broadly anxiety, which often leads to depression, which can lead to suicide, which can lead to drug abuse and alcohol abuse and food abuse and all sorts of things that we reach for when we become anxious or nervous or depressed or whatever it might be, with thankfulness and specifically thankfulness in prayer.

And if we notice verse 7, it says that the peace of God is going to guard our hearts and our minds.

Guard from what? Guard from what? Well, from depression, from anxiety, from these feelings of loneliness or hopelessness or whatever they might be. That peace that comes from giving our cares over to God in prayer and in thankfulness. That gratitude, that is how God is able to give us strength to confront these anxieties because we all have these anxieties. We've talked about this before. You know, we live in an age of anxiety. That is the hallmark of our time. I'd like to read something about this from a magazine called The Greater Good Magazine, which is published by UC Berkeley. It's an article titled, How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times by Dr. Robert Emmons. He's at the University of California Davis just up the road here, and this is dated from May 13, 2013. He says here, our national holiday of gratitude, Thanksgiving, was born and grew out of hard times. I think we understand the pilgrims and so forth, but he says here, the first Thanksgiving took place after nearly half the pilgrims died from a rough winter and year. It became a national holiday in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War and was moved to its current day to the 1930s following the Depression. Trials and suffering, I'm continuing to quote here, trials and suffering can actually refine and deepen gratefulness if we allow them to show us not to take things for granted.

Why? Well, when times are good, people take prosperity for granted and begin to believe they are invulnerable. In times of uncertainty, though, people realize how powerless they are to control their own destiny. If you begin to see that everything you have, everything you have counted on, may be taken away, it becomes harder to take it for granted. So crisis, and I finished the quote, so crisis can make us more grateful. But research says gratitude also helps us cope with crisis.

Consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall. There is scientific evidence that grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals.

That's a quote from a secular author. He's actually listed as one of the leading experts on gratitude, a man with his PhD at the University of California, Davis, whose focus is on gratitude.

Let's turn over to 1 Thessalonians 5, just a few pages over, because I think what one of the world's leading experts on gratitude has done is sort of caught up to what God instructed us 2,000 years ago in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17, where he talks about building up this psychological immune system. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17, we've read this many times, it says, pray without ceasing, but then it doesn't finish because there's a comma there.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The New Living Translation says this, never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you and you belong to Christ Jesus. It's a command.

It's a command to cultivate thankfulness. It's a command to be thankful. You must be thankful.

Now that sounds kind of weird when you put it that way, right? Well, I don't want to be thankful. I don't feel like being thankful. My life sucks right now. I'm not going to be thankful. Thank you very much. Give me some space. You know, I mean, that's, you know, we tend to kind of, you know, bristle a little bit. But that's what God says. He says, you must be thankful. You must be thankful.

Whether it's ups or whether it's down. And God knows who I am. He knows who you are.

And He can likely predict that we're going to feel low sometimes. We're going to feel down.

And in fact, some of that is people get so down that they turn to drugs. Prescription drugs, in this case, this is why we have an opioid epidemic. Maybe those drugs were prescribed for some sort of serious condition. Maybe a surgery. You know, maybe the person was in some sort of a car accident, you know, and they gave them oxycontin. And it took that pain away. And then they got a little bit better. And they still had some of that stuff around. And they were feeling a little down. And they remember the feeling of that oxycontin. And they take some more. And they got some refills. And, you know, now they're, you know, I mean, the company that developed it, you know, they've settled, right? Because the fact is, well, we know that that was actually getting pushed on people. That stuff was getting pushed on people as a way of feeling better. And then they're stuck on oxycontin. Or it's alcohol. Or it's street drugs, you know? I mean, a lot of people, you know, they don't have prescriptions like that. They have to go out and they get it off the street. It doesn't matter whether they got it legally or illegally. They reach out for some sort of way of coping with their loneliness. And so we, too, need to realize this is more than willpower. This is more than like, I'm just going to be thankful. And so there it is. No, we need strategies. We need things we can do. And so I want to share some three things that I think the Scripture reveals about how we can cultivate gratitude. So we just don't like, okay, yeah, I got to be thankful. I'm going to try. I'm going to do the best I can. I'm doing the best I can.

How do we cultivate gratitude? Now, I could share with you, you know, the problem and sort of three points. And, you know, we could make this a little bit academic. But before I kind of go down that path, I want to start with a famous quote from Mike Tyson. Everybody knows who Mike Tyson is, right? Big guy, right? Don't mess with Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson famously said, everyone has a plan till you get punched in the mouth. I probably heard that quote, right? Everybody's got a plan till you get punched in the mouth. And then it all goes out the window, right? So I think we need to approach these points with, hey, that's great, but I just got punched in the mouth. So that was great. But now I got to, you know, think about what my life means. So, you know, it's tough when we've been punched in the mouth and our whole life has been turned upside down and we don't can't figure out what's going on. I think we each of us kind of have to go back to that moment. If you're in that moment right now, you can be in that moment because I think it's important to be in that moment right now. If you're not in that moment, go back to when you were in that moment because that's when we need to think about these strategies because it's great to sit here. We're all together, community, we're feeling good. It's nice and warm. Hopefully you had a good lunch, you know, everything's good, right? But when things aren't good, that's when you need to go back to these strategies. I think I shared a moment when I was a young man and I came down with typhoid fever. And I was in Israel and they couldn't figure out what it was. I was going from hospital and clinic and it was during the intifada and I was just some, you know, rich American and, you know, they had real serious combat. You know, people who had been injured in the intifada that they were dealing with and it was a very difficult moment. And I was sitting in the hospital, actually I was laying down in a bed, I was waiting for the test results.

They couldn't figure out what it was. And I was just feeling very sorry for myself. I was in a lot of pain and I had very high fevers. In fact, my fevers were so high that I went into paranoia.

It was actually affecting how I was thinking I thought they were going to come and take me away.

And it occurred to me at that moment, I remember James 1-1, you know, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And the program director, Mr. Richard Page, some of you might remember Mr. Page from years ago, he was sitting beside me and I leaned over to Mr. Page and I said, you know, Mr. Page, I'm just thinking about James 1-1 right now and how I'm just, you know, I'm in this trial and I need to count it joy. And he looked back at me and he said, he said, well, I'm glad you brought that up because I was thinking the same thing, having to sit next to you all day like this. And at first I was like, huh? And then I realized he was kind of grinning a little bit. He was kind of teasing me, you know, about that. But, you know, like, yeah, it was kind of a pain for him to sit there too, you know, I mean, he would rather done other things besides sitting next to me all day in this hospital and, you know, help me. But, you know, it helps you get perspective on things, right? So go back to that moment when you felt like you just couldn't, you know, sort of keep up with things. And if you think about that moment, it brings me to my first point, which is to make sure you find a friend. Make sure you find a friend. Find a set of friends. Find somebody you can reach out to. You know, I was sitting there feeling very alone, even though I had somebody sitting next to me. And I said that to him and then, you know, he joked with me and it kind of lifted my spirits. When we have a friend, when we've been, you know, hit in the face or we've got a sickness or a disease, we need somebody to talk to because they're going to give us perspective. As bad as I felt, I realized, well, it was kind of a bummer for him to sit there all day too. As bad as we might feel about what's going on us, you know what? There's always worse.

And we need somebody to tell us that. So if we're going to cultivate gratitude, the first point that I'd ask you to write down is two are better than one. Two are better than one. And that's a quote from Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9. Let's go over there. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9 to 12. Two are better than one.

So when we've been punched in the mouth and we're feeling really down, just remember, two are better than one. That's what God revealed in this scripture here. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9. It says two are better than one. That's what we need. We need somebody we can talk to or somebody who's going to talk to us because we may not even feel like talking, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. And that's what happens. That's what happens with suicide. That's what happens with drugs and overdoses and so forth. Typically, these people are alone. Verse 11. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. We need people in our lives. You can jot this down in Proverbs 17 verse 17. We won't turn there. It says, a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. What does that mean? He's born for he's born to be. That's why God gave us brothers and friends for our adversity. They're there for adversity. I'd like to read you from an article by Francie Art Broghammer from May of this year titled, Death by Loneliness.

Death by Loneliness. She says, I recently treated a young woman who intentionally severed her airway and spinal cord with an eight-inch kitchen knife in an attempt to take her own life.

She cited as the drivers of her despair the isolation associated with caring for her ill grandmother and the paucity or scarce-ness of individuals with whom she could meaningfully discuss such challenges. She was alone. She had nobody to talk to. She was depressed taking care of her mom, the strain of it. She just couldn't handle it, and there was nobody there for her to talk to. Continuing the quote, unfortunately, I treat patients like her far too often.

This kind of loneliness, defined by an absence of meaningful relationships, now plagues nearly half of all Americans. In fact, American loneliness has doubled since 1980. One in five Americans report having no one to talk to when going through difficult times. Our isolation is so severe that former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently declared loneliness a public health crisis. Could you imagine? This is from May of this year. The Surgeon General says loneliness is a public health crisis. As further evidence that loneliness is at the core of our crisis, consider that the three least densely populated states in the country, Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana, had the highest per capita suicide rate in 2012. Conversely, our republic's most densely populated regions, such as Washington, D.C. and New Jersey, had the lowest suicide rates. No other factor, I find this really powerful, no other factor, whether income, family structure, or religious observance correlates with suicide rates to the same degree. I worked, excuse me, I volunteered and went over to see the folks at the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Hotline when I was a young man.

And if you walk down the Golden Gate Bridge, you'll see those signs, right? If you've seen them, right? You know, feeling lonely, call the stumper, right? That's why they have suicide prevention light. So somebody can call. You can just talk to somebody. This is a fundamental biblical principle. Two are better than one. Two are better than one. Let's look over in Romans, and we'll see this in Romans 1, verse 11 and 12. You know, the Apostle Paul, we think of him sort of as a monolithic, you know, bastion of doctrine and courage and, you know, stoned and shipwrecked and all these types of things. But he was a human being, like us, probably felt lonely on some of his trips. You know, he appreciated the companionship. He talks about that a lot, of Timothy and Titus and others. But look what he says in Romans 1, verse 11. He says, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established.

And then just to make sure that people understood what he said, he clarifies in verse 12, he says, that is, in other words, in other words, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. I was looking forward to seeing you so that we can encourage one another, so we can help one another by our mutual faith. It's just like anybody else. He was looking for companionship. He was looking for connection.

The week before last, I heard about the death of a very close friend of mine from Ambassador College. He was 53 years old, and I had stayed in touch with him fairly regularly for the first 25 years or so. But in the last five years, I lost touch with him, and I saw a GoFundMe announcement earlier this year for him. He had had some health issues, and I had no idea.

And so I called him up, and the phone was disconnected. And I called another line, and it was disconnected. And I tried every way I could to reach him. And it seemed like there was nothing I could do. I reached out to the GoFundMe person, and they didn't get back to me. I donated. I tried several ways to reach him. And like I said, just a week and a half ago, I found out on Facebook from someone who knew him that he had passed away. And, you know, I was very sad that I had lost track of him. And I think maybe, you know, if I had stayed in touch, maybe that could have helped. And you know, what I decided to do was to reach out to another friend who I'd talked to in about three or four years. And I reached out to him, and I said, it's going to sound really funny, but or weird, but I'm calling you because, you know, and I've mentioned this person's name died.

And I hadn't talked to him in a lot of years, and I thought you'd want to know. And I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your friendship. And I haven't talked to you in a while, and I just wanted to talk. And you know, he said, wow, this is so old school. You picked up the phone.

You called me. And we talked for an hour on the phone, and I felt encouraged. And I think he felt encouraged. And we traded some emails afterwards and some pictures. Just pick up the phone. You just don't know what can happen either on your side or on their side. So the first point is, two are better than one. That's the biblical principle. Two are better than one. The second point on how we can cultivate gratitude, and again, I want you to think back to when you were punched in the face, okay? Think about what you did. Think about how you cope. Think about what got you through or didn't get you through. The next thing about cultivating gratitude is integrating thankfulness into our prayers. Integrating thankfulness into our prayers. Having it as a very purposeful component of our prayers. Let's turn over to Colossians 4, verse 2.

Colossians 4, verse 2. You might say this is similar to what we read in 1 Thessalonians, but there's an element here that's a little bit different. We'll see here. Colossians 4, verse 2.

It says, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

So, let me ask you a question. Does thanksgiving come at the beginning of your prayers?

Or does it come at the end? Or in the middle? Where does thanksgiving fit? The beginning or the end of your prayers? You know, I think we should begin our prayers with praise, right? I think that we're instructed, right? The model prayer. We heard about that in the sermon. That's a model prayer, right?

Our Father in heaven hallowed, or holy is thy name, right? That's what we're instructed to do. We're instructed to begin our prayers with praise for our heavenly Father.

And when we do this, I think we begin by recognizing who God is, and by extension being thankful for who God is. But notice the order here, because I think this is important. In verse 2, he says, to continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. So we're supposed to be vigilant in prayer with thanksgiving. And then in verse 3, he asks for help. He says, meanwhile, that is, in addition, kind of, you know, as you're doing this, praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak, the mystery of Christ, for which I also am in chains. So Paul says, devote yourselves to prayer.

The phrase here, by the way, is an interesting phrase. It's a single phrase in Greek.

It's so long. I hate to spell it out. I might, maybe we'll talk about it in the sermon chat.

It's a very, it's a single phrase, which here where it says, continue earnestly. Another way of putting it is to devote yourselves to it. And it's used 10 times in the New Testament.

And according to the expositor's Bible commentary, the phrase is built on a root meaning to be strong, be strong in prayer. So he says, be vigilant, be strong, have thanksgiving. And then he teaches that we can pray for him. We can pray for him then. So he puts prayer and praise and thanksgiving first, and then he asks for prayers for him. And I think this sequencing is not by accident. I think it gives it an insight, gives us an insight to how Paul thought about his prayer. You know, we had a prayer request for the spears. Spears. There you are. For Mr. Spears. And we have prayer requests. And you know, I don't think we want to preach all the time and say all these things, but you know, if we think about prayer requests, if we had a prayer request, if we said, you know, brethren, we just thank you for your prayers, and we just ask that you continue to pray regularly with thanksgiving. And we'd also like to ask for your prayers for, and then we fill in the blank.

You know, if we had our prayer requests like that in mind, I think it would just get us back to the thanksgiving. Because a lot of times you might think, oh, you know, I'm going through a difficult trial, and many of us are going through trials. But if we begin our prayer and our request for prayer with just encouraging all of us to pray with thanksgiving, including ourselves, to pray with thanksgiving, to begin first. Sounds a little funny to our ears to say something like, well, Tim Peppworth asks all of you to continue in diligent prayer, being grateful for what God has provided you and for him. And he'd also like to ask for your help in praying for him with his travels in France. You know, that sounds a little wordy, a little strange, but that's essentially what Paul is saying. And that is how he integrated thanksgiving into his prayers. But just staying here, just look across the page in Colossians 3 verse 17, because we see this also, this concept of thanksgiving mentioned here, too. He says in verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So there it is again. Just be thankful in your prayer. And, you know, we might be tempted to read this teaching and as sort of another reinforcement of the importance of prayer and thanksgiving. And we might just leave that alone just right there. Like, well, we saw it in Colossians 4.2. We saw it in Colossians 3.17. This is a very important topic, and we need to be thankful. But I think verse 17 very clearly concludes a thought that began in verse 12.

And it ties into the overall topic that I'm talking about, and I think it's going to bring us here to our third point about cultivating gratitude, which is that to cultivate gratitude, we need to show love through forgiveness. We need to show love through forgiveness. And again, I just want you to go back to when you were feeling really bad, when you were having a very difficult time. And if you're having a very difficult time, I ask you to really think about love and forgiveness as a way of cultivating gratitude. And we'll see this because this is the context here of what Colossians 3 verse 17 is describing. Look in Colossians 3 verse 1 and 2, and just sort of see how Paul starts out this discussion. He says in Colossians 3 verse 1 and 2, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth.

So the context here is to set our minds on things above. And if we're feeling really bad about our lives, if we're feeling really downtrodden, if we're feeling really depressed and lonely, it's hard to do that because we're just sort of consumed in our own pain and anxiety and anguish.

But Paul says, you know, if you're raised with Christ, seek those things that are above and put on those things. And so the context is telling us this. And so in verse 8, he tells us about the things we're supposed to put off. And if you want to write in your margin, you can write the word put off next to verse 8. He says, but now you must also put off these things, anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy. And a lot of those things tend to come when we're suffering. We're upset.

Right? We may get testy. We may even let some foul language come out of our mouth because we're upset. We're agitated because we're going through some difficulty. And those things we put off.

And in verse 12 then begins, as I said, this thought that concludes in verse 17. He says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on. And if you want to have a, you can put that in your margins there, put on. So this is what we're supposed to put on if we're going to follow his instructions. This is what we're supposed to put on. We're supposed to put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has to complain against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. So to move forward with gratitude, there must be love as shown by these things, as shown by forgiveness, as shown by mercy, as shown by humbleness and patience. And all of these things lead to a peace of mind. In verse 15, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. See, this sounds probably familiar to Philippians. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. See, he's tying forgiveness and thanksgiving, forgiveness and gratitude. He's tying these things together. All these things lead to a peace of mind. All of these things lead to gratitude. And so then, he says in verse 16, he gives sort of another strategy that maybe might help with the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and monishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts the Lord. And if you've ever been down, singing kind of helps, you know? Singing kind of helps. And singing together, certainly with other people, helps. And then in verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all the in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Each of us carries a frustration or a set of frustration, a set of hurts.

And maybe we've been punched in the face a few too many times, perhaps even literally, if we've suffered abuse at the hands of a spouse or a parent. And the process of forgiveness, the process of mercy, the process of bearing with somebody who is a pain, when we do those things, it leads us to put on the likeness of Jesus Christ.

And the likeness of Jesus Christ means kindness and mercy and forgiveness.

And all of this leads, then, to gratitude. This is how we cultivate gratitude. It leads to forgiveness. And so these thoughts, these connections here, these things are all related. And you know what's interesting in the context of this verse is that if we go from Colossians 3, verse 17 to Colossians 4, verse 2, in between, we have a whole set of instructions around relationships. We have in verse 18 the relationship between wives and their husbands, in 19 husbands and their wives, and 19 children and their parents. In verse 21, fathers and their children. In verse 22, servants and their masters. These are relationships. And where are we going to have conflict but in these relationships? And where is bitterness going to come from within these relationships when we don't forgive, when we don't have patience, when we don't have kindness, when we don't bear with one another? And so Paul is connecting all of these things as a way of how we work with one another and how we interact with one another. And all of this goes back to forgiveness and love and gratitude. You know, a few years ago, about this time, I went full-time into the ministry, and I got a call from a woman who shared that her father was struggling with the will to live. He had really lost the will to live. And in fact, he was considering even taking his own life under the state right to die laws. And she asked if I could come see her dad and talk with him.

And indeed, his situation was beyond anything I think people in this room could bear. He had been confined to his room for many years. He was struggling to breathe, hooked up to oxygen. He had been successful in business. He had traveled. He had seen the world.

He was used to having a certain sort of level of independence in his life and ability to be on his own. And now here he was, basically incarcerated, stuck, unable to really go anywhere. And we talked about his pain. We talked about what death would mean. We talked about his family. And I knew his family loved him dearly. And he knew that too. We talked about trials. And we talked about gratitude.

We talked about being at peace. And when I left the house, I didn't know how he would respond.

I tried to mostly listen. You know, I felt frankly very unqualified to sort of tell him how he should feel, right? How could I know what it would be like to basically be trapped inside your body?

You know, a mind fully functioning, capable, you know, moving ahead, trapped inside this body that was just on a path towards death. And so I tried to listen as best I could and be a sounding board from him or for him. I didn't know how he would proceed, but I heard later that he decided to hang in there. And before the feast this year, I received an email from his daughter letting me know that he had died. He managed to go another two, two and a half years. And it can be hard to be thankful under those circumstances, can it? But you know, he didn't have to do it alone.

He had somebody there for him. It can be hard to be thankful if we focus primarily on our own hurts and our needs. And even in the most difficult circumstances, people like that can think about how others suffer and how others deal with their pain. It can be hard to be thankful if we can't forgive and show mercy because we're holding that pain inside of us, of what somebody did to us and how wrong they were. And truly, people can be so hurtful and terrible. But when we let go of that pain, and we let go and we forgive and we show mercy, there's just an incredible capability to be thankful for what we've been through, despite the difficulties.

God has given us a community. He's given us this community, and He's called us to be part of His family. And He wants us to receive good gifts. And sometimes when we're having difficulties, we can forget that God wants good things for us because we wonder how we can be in so much darkness, and God can still be on His throne. But in these difficult times, He wants to show us grace, grace for which we can be thankful, and grace that can inspire us to forgive.

Let's cultivate gratitude, no matter where we are. Let's think about those tough times and think about how we cultivated gratitude in those difficult times. Maybe you cultivated it one of these three ways, maybe you cultivated it other ways. But let's think about how we cultivate that gratitude, how we can live day to day, recognizing that we have a purpose, we have a mission, and we don't have to be in despair. Our culture is leading down the path of despair. It's showing in the statistics. The surgeon general himself is declaring it a national crisis. We don't have to be affected by that. This is what I might call medicinal level gratitude, right? This isn't kind of a vitamin. This is a medicine. This is medicinal level gratitude, and I think that's what the Bible gives us. I think that's where God gives us strength to be able to move forward day to day. Let's be led by God's peace, that we might have our hearts and minds guarded against these things.