Gratitude reframes our experience in life. When we are grateful, we are more fun to be with and gratitude gives us a lens through which we can see the Father's love in our lives.
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I'm Josh Hallmark, and I want to thank you for listening to one of the oaks podcasts. Remember this message from Isaiah? Chapter 61 God takes the seeds of Brokenness and turns them in tow oaks of righteousness. And that's you in Revelation, where the angel tells John the revelator look, there's tough things coming, and patience and endurance is required on behalf of the saints. And so this is like a muscle that we want to know that we are. We're tough and were able to withstand things that come against us. But gratitude is a big part of us being able to endure, because what happens when you, when you aren't grateful when you don't have gratitude, you start seeing all the problems. When you start seeing all the problems, then what happens is you start getting discouraged. You start getting discouraged when all the problems we all know that the definition of stress he might want to write this down. The definition of stress is when you're perceived, supply is less than your perceived demand. It's perception you're perceived now. You might be stressed because it actually your supplies is actually less than your man. But how we see that we that is what causes us to feel stressed anyway. So gratitude has a real way of framing things right for us. We'll talk a little more about that later. So today I want to continue in the same thought, calling this unlike the power of gratitude. It's the same idea, though, is that we should be thankful. But I've got some more points that I want to share with you. And hopefully this will go along with our negativity fast, but also help us understand that gratitude is not something you just talk about when it's time to turkey, Right? By the way, if I remember, right, You know, Abraham Lincoln was the one that set up, um, Thanksgiving. And this was either right after the Civil War. It was in the very end of the Civil War. It was a very, very difficult time in our nation that he said a part, a time to thank the Lord for his blessings for his bounty and that is that amazing. So you don't have to wait till things were good before you get thankful or before you become grateful. And so anyway, I want to share just a few thoughts with you leading up to Thanksgiving, and hopefully this will help us. Number one is when I am grateful I am or fun to be with no, did your husband or wife and just say it's the truth. You could knows that anybody that's besides you, you know you can even not know him that well. So yeah, that's probably right. Did you know that gratitude is relational in nature? Watch this. I'm in shape something. There's a study that I read about gratitude, and it said that people who are grateful tend to be more empathetic. Empathy is our ability to see someone else's condition. Empathy is our ability to take ourselves outside of our own skin and c somebody else's skin. So what empathy does Empathy, Um, like where empathy allows me to see someone else's plight. Gratitude helps me or let me say this way, where empathy enables us to recognize someone else's play. Gratitude enables us to recognize someone else's effort so that one more time where empathy enables us to see someone that's his plight. Gratitude enables us to see someone else's effort. Now, let me ask you a question I'm telling you, if you write in that thought down, you could say when I'm great, more fun to be with or you can write down. Gratitude is relational. Gratitude is relational. When I'm grateful, I am more fun to be with. And I want you to think about it for just a minute. We can look at the other side. You all know the person, maybe the family member mayors and Gertrude that you'll see every Christmas. And that Gertrude is negative, no matter what you say. Look, Anger tree I've got Ah, I got a brand new vehicle. I got the new Tesla a truck. It's amazing. And she's like, was probably not good on gas. Right? That was a joke, you know? Give me a little more than that, please. Thank you. It was fake. I receive O S o you got. You know I'm talking about, though no matter what you say, I won the lottery and Gertrude will probably It's all going to pay the taxes. It's gonna be taxed 90% anyway. And that's not fun to be around, is it? You're OK. Good to see you can get your anger trade. I'm gonna go look for the, um, you know, for the pumpkin casserole or whatever the sweet potato casserole. So when I'm grateful, I'm more fun to be with. And that is because when you're a grateful person, you you are more relational. What? When I hang out with anybody, I try to recognize something that they've been doing. It just means look, we were all created to be seen. Do you know? Do you like it when somebody recognizes your effort? How about Theis? Your work? You're fixing a problem. You're not going to say Hey, everybody Look at may I just fix this problem, right? Because that's not really how you guys roll, but you do it. But then somebody sees it in their life. I am. I'm so glad that somebody finally fix that toll. It it works now. And that was that. You and you? Yeah. Tired of doing where? You know, you're not trying to break in shit, but does it feel good when somebody recognizes your effort? It does. Did you know that gratitude actually has a has a way that it opens people towards you? I want to think about this when you're hanging out with people. People tend to either roll the window up, roll the window down, and when we're grateful, just when we recognize other people's effort, there is there is something about its nature that allows other people to be seen. Is that same feeling of empathy that I'm talking about? But instead of recognizing their plot, you're recognizing their effort or what they're good at or who they are is closely connected toe honor. And so this is one way that we can honor other people around us, is just being grateful for what they do. Yep, I think there's huge classes of people that do not get honored enough. Like to me, the older generation, my parents and my parents parents A lot of times, especially really old people, a lot of guns really over. When I say really old, because my kids kind of consider me old now, so I have toe. I have to bump it on the line. I think about my grandparent's generation, those who are still living. Oh young people just tend to write them off that they don't understand anything, but they actually laid a foundation that we actually inherited everything we have is because somebody went before us, right? And so gratitude enables us to see that it enables us to recognize it and to show honor towards it while I'm on. This is like a little This is a little bit of a pit P, but I just tend to hear people complain so much about city parks and anything any kind of public work I felt were so ungrateful toe have roads that we can get down and parks that we can play in their beautiful if we just stop and say, Oh, thank you to the people in our city that because we just think we feel entitled to it because we pay taxes and those taxes win. But somebody, if you know anybody in any kind of public works, there is effort. There's planning, there's red tape and there's more red tape. And there's even more red tape that they had to push through to get the have that park over there so that you could go play and hang out right? And so gratitude enables us to just see Oh oh, there's a water fountain right there. Somebody actually had to make that happen. Yeah, gratitude, really helps us to be more fun to be with. Tell your neighbor I'm so glad you're here. All right, Number two gratitude reframes my experiences. So the thing that interested may just over the years is a study of, you know, uh, inner healing people's paying in their life, things that happen to people, how we overcome life's hurts deal with the pain, our life, you know, issues that cause trauma in our life, those kind of things. But gratitude is, is an anti venom to what the enemy is trying to do to take you out. Gratitude is an anti venom and one of the things that you might hear some you know, counsellors or psychologists say it's not just about what happens to you, but it's how you interpret what happens to you. I think this is a huge role of fathers, by the way, and mother's is to help our kids when things happen, because they're definitely gonna happen to help interpret the things that happen for them to help them see things in a redemptive light. To help them seat things is just because somebody made fun of their hair doesn't mean the world's over right and so there's there's ways that we can help. But gratitude has its own way of helping reframe our circumstances. So it's not just what happens to you, but it's actually how you perceive what's happened to you. What I'm saying is some people are abused and there's no excuse and no good in it, ever. It causes trauma, but there's some people that are devastated by, and there are other people that are not devastated by, and a lot of it has to do with how we interpret it. How we deal, how we respond so much of your pain in your life has less to do with what actually happened to you and as more to do with what you do with it. Once it happens now, gratitude enables us to find something redemptive in it so that your time and your pain was not wasted. One example I was thinking of in terms of just a really time experience is that the disciples early on they started preaching about Jesus and people said, Don't do this, don't preach about Jesus, and they're like, Well, we should obey God rather than men, right? And so they kept preaching about Jesus. And then they got flogged. They got whipped. And after this traumatic event, they started a support group on people who have been witnessed in and had got flogged. And they went through 20 years of trauma that I'm sorry, Council. Look, I believe in counseling. I did. I did it myself, right? So I'm not anti any of that. But you know what the disciples did? They ran away and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to be to be mistreated for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's what they heard the sermon right before that about gratitude. It had to do with how they framed what happened to them right now. To me, that really takes that takes the grace of God for that to happen. But here's the deal is that the grace of God is available to us. Now, listen, If any of you guys have been hurt or misuse, I want you understand that I am in no way trying to be little what is happening. I've spent a lot of time over the years helping pray three things with people in dealing with my own stuff, okay? And so I value dealing, but I want to understand is that you have power in your situation. You're not a victim to something that happened to you a long time ago. You were in the driver's seat. You have power, and you got the Holy Ghost. He's a good guy. So? So gratitude. Hell, to reframe My experience is one more thing that I was thinking of is that Paul and Silas you guys might remember they were. They were preaching, and there was a revival that broke out. Um, they ended a causing a disturbance from their enthusiasm and their ah, in their ministry. And, uh, they were put in prison. They were flogged. First they're flogged, and they were put in prison. They were flogged without a trial there. Roman citizens. I wasn't supposed to happen, but they, um they went in prison. And this is when the prison was shaken. Actually. Can't marry. Exactly, uh, there's to a couple of stories, but the prison was shaken. But you know what they were doing right before the prison was shaken, they were rehearsing their injustices. No, that's not what they were doing. The Bible says they were praising God and singing hymns There I saw issue member that only and I'll fly away. Let's sing that song They started. They were praising God. There was there was a different spirit that they had. And I feel like that's that same characteristic of those who said, Lord, we thank you that you found us worthy to suffer on your behalf. I mean, in some ways, that seems like, Whoa, how did they think there? But here's the deal is gratitude has a way of causing something that's very disturbing, Like getting flogged and put in prison would cause me some trauma. I'm not gonna lie, okay? And it probably would you guys to And maybe it did to them, too. But they were able to actually embrace their circumstance in a completely different way because the way that they embraced it, because because of gratitude, So you regretted reframes my experiences. And then here's the 3rd 1 is that gratitude gives me a lens to see God through. Remember when I said that gratitude is relational and that you're more fun to be around when you're grateful and that's because it's relational and people would rather be around you if you're grateful. I'm not saying he had to be like all Polly. Anna, You probably an amazing everything's okay, all time, no matter what. That's not what I mean. Okay, We can be realistic about what's going on her life and still be grateful for the blessings in our lives. But gratitude gives me a lens to see God through. Something happened to me this past week. I was standing right here, wears a microphone. I was standing right here, and, uh, I move if I start feeding back right here, and, uh, third grader was standing right here, his name's Malika and, um, Malika. Actually, he might be a secondary second. They're great, but well, he's a little guy, right? Malka standing here and it's whole rooms full of kids, right? We're all spread out and we're talking. We're turning what we're thankful for into a prayer we're seeing. Lord, I thank you for this and this and this and kids are saying a lot of different things, you know, a lot of more thankful for their mom and dad. And Mallika said this when I was standing right here. He said, Lord, I thank you for my house And he said it in a way like he was talking about his house, right? Not that I have a house, but I'm thankful for my house and my stuff. That's what he said. And, um, somehow something happened with me where something took with me and I realized What do you the God of the universe? Who knows your name? He knows your address. He knows your social security number. He knows your weight. He knows your eye color. He knows how tall you are. What if that same God knows what kind of car you have? What if he knows the house that you live in and the socks that you're wearing? What if that God actually gave you your house? And what if that God actually gave you your favorite boxers? What if that God gave you your house that you have in particular? And your stuff? What if God was intentional? That he likes you And he wanted Bless you. He likes relationship. And he gave you your favorite gun. Oh, God forbid. What if he did it on purpose? How do you think he would feel if you noticed? What would it do for your relationship with God if you noticed. Lord, thank you for my truck. Thank you for my car. My The one that I have. Some of you guys were like, It's nice and knew something like It's got character, you know? It's got dents in it that are just just mine and mine alone, right? What if you stopped and recognize that exact things that God gave you? And what if you realize that the things he gave you, he did on purpose? Show me a verse, Josh. Let's look at this. I love this verse. This is from James Will 17. Every good and perfect gift. Some of you guys got perfect years and somebody got good gifts. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Does that mean the devil gave you the gift? That would probably be from below, right? Or if the gift came because somebody gave it to you, that would be from across. But what if every good everything in your life that you would deem good and some things that you would deem more than good? Perfect. What if those things actually originated by the intention of the father? What if he did it on purpose. Well, this verse says he did. Every good and perfect gift is from above. You don't know exactly what I'm saying. What I mean is this is what James is saying. What I mean is coming down from the father of Heavenly Lights who does not change like the shifting shadows. He's light. He's in the light. There's no shadows. He sees you light stands for revelation. It stands for clarity. It's not darkness. There's no confusion in it. The father of Heavenly Lights knows what you like. He knows who you are, and he's made room in his world to give you some of the things that were just for you. You know, I was sitting in a part one time having a quiet time. This has probably been about 15 years ago and, uh, in Auburn, and, uh, I was sitting there and I just felt like the Lord spoke to me. I was just admiring this the tree, and, um, I felt like the Lord spoke this to me and he said, Josh, I put that tree right there for you. You know, it's I kind of thought it sounds goofy in my head. A little bit like, Oh, Josh, you really embellishing this now, you know? But it just stuck with me. I'm not. Well, Lord, there's, you know, this is a CD part we're talking. I see parts earlier, nor this is a city part. A lot of people are here. The city planted that tree, probably. But I felt like the Lord was trying to get me to see that his mind is really, really big. And his intention is very, very strong. And there are things in my life that are very, very good. Down to the deck gum tree. I get the look at when I'm sitting in a park for 15 minutes and know how much time or whatever that he can say. You know what? When we were doing that exercise in here, some of the kids said things that Lord, I thank you that there are animals, like someone thank the Lord for, like their own dogs or cats. Someone thank the Lord that their animals did. You know that this world was created uniquely to sustain life. And when God crowned the creation he made you, he put you in it and he put you in In a way, there could be enjoyment from it. Gratitude has to do with us being please Herbal. Did you know that God said of Jesus when he came? This is my son whom I love in him. I am. I am well pleased. Some of you serve a version of God that can never be pleased. It's like a black hole that everything you do is never please. But that is not how God is. God is a God that is able to derive pleasure from your obedience and from your life. And even from your gratitude, he is impacted by you. Do you not think that he likes it when you are impacted by him and by the things that he does? So gratitude gives me a lens to recognize the Lord. What if all of a sudden everything that you see in your life down to the trees and the animals in your house and your stuff that you see is a gear from the father of Heavenly lights? All of a sudden you recognize that he is at work in your life. He's not far away. He's right there, and he wants you to see it It's relational between the two of you. So I went in today with your sheet. You got a sheet in front of you? I have a box of pins. Appear somebody's. He might need a pen if you can't find a pin in front of you and I want us to do 55 minute exercise, you might need a pin, huh? You didn't get a sheet? I got one for you. Anybody missing the sheet? She I need a fan, and that's not a pen or she all right. Pimp? Yes. All right, let's take about five minutes. And do you mind getting some music? Otherwise, I might start humming the Jeopardy song or something like that. Um, let's take five minutes. This is to prepare for more information about the visit the oaks dot org. Thanks for work.