Growing in Gratitude

Well again, really good morning to you. So glad you guys could join us. My name is René. I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and we have been in a fall series called Miracle Grow, studying what the Bible calls the fruit of the spirit, and this weekend we wrap it all up. And I'm very excited about this, but I want to give you a little sneak preview. Next weekend, we actually start our holiday series. It'll be the weekend after Thanksgiving, if you can believe that. It's called Good News for a Change, because it feels like we are just hearing bad news just constantly. I mean, in every angle. And so we're going to look at all the Bible passages, Old and New Testament, that describe the coming of Jesus Christ as good news, because that'll change your whole paradigm on how you even perceive the bad news in the world today. I'm stoked about it. I hope you are too. That happens next weekend.

Now, today, I just want to start by saying from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so, so much. If you're a guest today, you chose a great weekend to be here. It's going to be a fun message. But last weekend, on my 25th anniversary as a pastor here at this church, and I can hardly believe I'm saying that number, 25, but this church surprised me in every single service with another new giant basket loaded with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thank you cards directed to me and to my wife. And what I've done to try to really relish them, because can you imagine what you could do with hundreds and hundreds of thank you cards, just kind of like blow through them? Okay, how many more do I have to get through? So I thought, I don't want to do that. I have just opened 10 at a time, 10 every morning and 10 every night. Every single day I've opened at least that many. That means I've gotten through about 150 of them. And when I look at the basket, it looks like I haven't even touched them. There are so many, and I have been brought to tears and brought to laughter. I have never heard of a church doing that for a pastor before. It has been delightful. It has, honestly, I feel like it's just changed my life. It's just buoyed me up in so many ways. So from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you to you all. I wish I could thank you all individually. And remember, it's going to take me a couple of months to get through all those. So if you wrote something super nice, and I don't say anything to you kind this morning, I probably haven't read your thank you card yet.

But it was great. But my favorite moment, I think, of the entire weekend was this, a kind of an elderly gentleman who I didn't recognize right after the 10:45 service. Mark is thanking me. He dismisses the church, and he just comes right up onto the stage because he wants to shake my hand. And he says, "Pastor, I just want to thank you for 25 years of faithful service. We're sure gonna miss you." And I said, "I think you misunderstand. This isn't a retirement thing. I don't have any plans to go anywhere." And he goes, "Oh." And he just walks away. So I disappointed at least one person.

Hey, let's read our key verse for this series together again. Galatians 5:22–23. If you know it by heart, say it by heart. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." How many of you believe that you've memorized that verse as we studied the last 11 weeks? That's gonna be great for you for the rest of your life, kind of thinking about this verse. Now, one of the things we did about halfway through this series when we studied kindness is we said, "We want to be this kind of a person. We just don't want to study this kind of a person. And so let's do it." And we decided, "Let's just do some random acts and not so random acts of kindness in our county before the end of this series. We even had kindness grants, funds for people who wanted to do kindness projects." So many of them came in and we were just able to get photos and videos from a few of them. Here's just a brief recap. Watch the screen.

And so I would love for us to go out and just unleash kindness, a wave of kindness into Santa Cruz County. This is, you know, once, maybe twice a year that they're able to access a lot of this stuff. And people are, yeah, they're very grateful. Nobody grows up, "What do you want to do?" I'm like, "Oh, I want to be a homeless drug addict." Everybody in here has been kind and helpful and really helping to get people back to have a dream about what they could do and become. I've been here for over 40 years. It's the first time any community and staff community has said, "Hey, that's our size staff people. Thank you." To get a little extra pampering at this particular time for me was just super unexpected and really, really appreciated. It made us feel so good to know that you all recognize what we're doing here on campus. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much. Thank you Twin Lakes Church.

Judy had a great idea for a kindness project. She found a school in Salinas. It's called El Gabylon Elementary School. 60 percent, Judy, of the students at this school are homeless. And as a retired teacher yourself, you understand what that means for the teachers. Out of their own funds, they are going to contribute to what the students need. And so you had an idea. You are putting together these gift bags for the teachers and they have all kinds of, they have a thank you note that you wrote. Pencils, pens, and we are well on our way to getting everybody a $20 gift card to Target. There are 36 teachers there. And Judy, you talked to the principal on the phone and she was a little bit suspicious at first, but when you told her that this was part of a church kindness project, what did she say? I've been praying for a way to thank my teachers. You and your husband contributed. You found some other people to help, but you're a lot about $250 short to giving every single one of these teachers a gift card. And I want you to know that we're providing that $250.

No! Yeah! I wanted to talk to Captain Harold about the Homeless Winter Shelter Project. The city is helping to pay for a lot of your expenses, but there's some expenses that are not being covered by the city. They're coming out of your pockets. And what are those expenses again? So we, every year for the winter shelter, we rent a shower trailer. The kitchenware that we use, that's not covered by the city contract. Blankets. Oh my gosh, yes. They buy warming blankets for every single homeless person at the shelter. All of this is going to cost the Salvation Army about $2,500. And Captain Harold, you may not know we've been doing kindness projects as a church, and we decided to adopt you. And we want to give you a check for every single dime that you're going to be spending on the Winter Shelter Project. That's just from Twin Lakes Church. Because we love you guys. You're doing good work. God bless you guys.

I would love for us to be known as a church that just exudes kindness, because it's kindness that brings people to God. Hey, let's just thank every single person who did a kindness project here. It was so wonderful to be a part of that the last five weeks. What a blessing. And by the way, in case you're going, "Oh, I missed out. I wasn't kind." There is still a chance for you to be a part of this. You might have caught on that we are delaying the end of our food drive one week into next weekend. It was going to be this weekend. But obviously with the fires, we want to focus on fire relief this weekend. And so you can still bring in something for the food drive, and they really need it. And that wraps up next weekend. So here's my question. Series is over. How do we keep living this kind of a life? A life of kindness and a life of love and of joy and of peace. Even when it's challenging. Even when the news is bad. Even when there are fires and there are droughts and there's a housing crisis. How can I stay fruitful? That's a big question.

Well, I want to show you a verse that just jumped out at me this week. Jeremiah 17 says, "But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank." Watch this. "With roots that reach deep into the water." If you're taking notes, circle roots. "Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worry by long months of drought." We got plenty of both of those things right now in our state, don't we? Heat and drought. "Their leaves stay green and they never stop," what? "Producing fruit." Church, that's what I want to be true of your life. As we go into the holidays and go into 2019 that no matter what happens, high, low, recession, depression, flood, fire, whatever, you go right on living a fruitful life. A life of love and joy and peace. Not freaked out. Not panicked at peace. But to do that, to have that experience, you need to be intentional about one thing. Roots. Putting down roots.

Jesus talked about the importance of this too in Mark 4, the parable of the sower. He said, "A farmer planted some seeds, some grew up, bore fruit, but others, like seeds sown in rocky places, hear the word at once, receive it with joy, but since they have no," what? "Root." They only last a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Listen, here's the key idea of the message today. No root, no fruit. Say that with me out loud. No root, no fruit. Good root, good fruit. So here's the million-dollar question, what do you need to be rooted in to stay fruitful? Now think about your answer for a second. Because for much of my life, kind of the church answer was, well, we need to be rooted in Bible knowledge, service to the church, church traditions, and there's nothing wrong with all those. I love all those things. I try to incorporate them into my own life. They're powerful, powerful things. But ultimately, they're a means to a deeper end. They're not the root. They get us to the root at best.

The root is something far deeper. Look at Ephesians 3. Paul says, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in what? Love may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." So according to this verse, church, what does God want you to be rooted in? Love. God's love. If you stay rooted in a daily awareness of God's love for you, then you will not wither. Then you will be producing the fruit of the spirit in your life. So the real question is, how do I stay rooted in a daily awareness of God's love? Well, there is one habit that you have to be intentional about practicing daily. And if you practice this habit, it is going to root you in God's love, and then you're going to bear fruit.

Flip your notes over to page 2. Colossians 2:7 says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, sink your roots in Him, and build on Him." Okay, how do I sink my roots into Jesus and His love for me? Be strengthened by the faith you were taught. So that's one thing. There's content here. I need to know the true gospel of grace, because that's going to set me free. And that's something we can help you with here at the church, through our messages, through Bible studies, through small groups. But the second thing, when it comes to sinking down your roots deep into Jesus Christ and His love for you, is this is something that only you can do. We can't do this for you. And overflow with what? Thanksgiving. If you want to sink your roots into Christ's love so that you bear fruit, this is the key habit that sends your roots deep into God's love. Gratitude. The more gratitude you practice on a daily basis, the more rooted you will be in God's love for you, and consequently, the more fruit you will produce.

Check this out. Famous researcher, Dr. Robert Emmons at UC Davis, studies gratitude, and he says the key to real gratitude is to believe, "I deserve nothing." It's all a gift. Approach life with that attitude, you'll have gratitude. What's he talking about? Here's one example. Back in 1995, there was a Major League Baseball strike. How many of you remember the Major League Baseball strike? Right? I remember it so well because my favorite player, Tony Gwynn, was going to bat 400, I think, that year, and the strike ruined his streak. But the players refused to play, and so what did the teams do? They fielded a bunch of ex-players, old minor leaders, high school coaches. Some guys were coaching Little League one week and playing in Major League stadiums the next. And these guys could not stop smiling. This one guy playing for the A's, he's smiling even though he's being upended and getting injured. Why were they smiling all the time? Listen, they didn't see themselves as a blessing to baseball. They saw baseball as a blessing to them because they knew they were living the dream. They were living a life that they knew they did not deserve. That's the attitude to have about life.

You see, God's grace, his gifts all around you every day, and when you approach life like that, that kind of gratitude helps you sink your roots down deep. In three powerful ways, jot these down. First, it gives me perspective to see beyond my circumstances. That's how it guards against the heat and the drought of life. And to help you understand this, I want you to meet a guy many of you may have never heard of. His name is Habakkuk. Say that out loud with me. Habakkuk. That's kind of fun to say, huh? Let's do it again. Habakkuk. And Habakkuk wrote a very obscure book in the Old Testament. Guess what it's called? Habakkuk. That's right. And he starts off his book with a list of complaints against God. Just right out of chapter one, he's going, "God, I got some complaints here. Why is Jerusalem crumbling and why are the bad guys winning? And why do all my prayers seem to go unanswered?" And he goes on and on like this, but skipped to the end of the book and he says this, "Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines." These are all the things he was complaining about in chapter one. "Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I'll be joyful in God my Savior." So if you don't know the book, you're probably wondering what happened between the beginning of chapter one and the end of chapter three. Absolutely nothing. Nothing in Habakkuk's circumstances changed. The only thing that changed was Habakkuk's perspective. He chose to say, "No grapes, no food, no sheep, no cattle, yet I will rejoice."

If you're taking notes with a pen or a pencil circle, yet I will. Because listen, in this world, your life will always have a "yet I will." Some of you didn't hear me. In this world, your life will always have a "yet I will." Because there will always be something about your job or about your marriage or about your life or about your kids or about where you live or about your circumstance or about your finances that isn't perfect. And so there will always be something you are choosing to thank the Lord in spite of. And you will say, "Though there is this, yet I will." Choose to be grateful. What's Habakkuk grateful for? Well, he says it, that God is his Savior. Here's what he discovered. You can be thankful not just for what God does, but for who God is. Habakkuk says, "Life's not perfect, but he's still my Savior. He still loves me every day." And I know he's still just, and I know he's still sovereign, because when my circumstances get bad, those things never change.

In fact, look at Psalm 136, it's on page 3 of your notes. I'm not going to put this on screen, but just look at it. Flip your notes over and look at that. Those are some verses from the 136th Psalm in the Bible. And I want you to see how it does both. It both thanks God for what he does and for who he is. That is, love endures forever. You know, this was written 3,000 years ago, approximately, and this was written so that the leader of worship in Jerusalem would read one line into the whole congregation, would together say, "His love endures forever." Let's try that. Everybody together say it. "His love endures forever." Let me say a few lines. Let's try this, all right? "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to him who alone does miracles. His love endures forever." Now, you're not saying it like you mean it. Let's try it like you mean it. Here we go. "His love endures forever." Let's try a few more. "Give thanks to him who crafted the heavens. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to him who made the earth. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights. His love endures forever." "Who made the sun to rule the day. His love endures forever." "And the moon and the stars to rule the night. His love endures forever." "He remembered us in our weakness. His love endures forever." "Give thanks to the God of heaven, because his love endures forever." Amen?

That combines what God does. He made the heavens. He remembered us. He saved us with who he is. His love endures forever. And that is a powerful, kind of graduate-level way to give thanks, right? Not just for your circumstances, but for something beyond that. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Let's say this out loud together, too. Let me hear you. "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Notice it says, "In all circumstances, not for all circumstances." We don't thank God for evil. There's a lot of evil and suffering in the world, but we can thank God in the midst of it. Why? Because of who he is. Here's a short list. I know that no matter what happens, God's never going to stop loving me, like the choir sang earlier. I know that this earth will not be broken forever. God's going to renew it one day. I know that even before then, God's going to bring good out of bad. The cross of Christ is the ultimate example of this. And I know he's going to do this in the case of these fires, too. I have complete confidence of all those things that no matter what happens, God is going to work in the circumstances.

Let me read you an email that's a great example of this. A while back, somebody sent me this on a Monday, and they had come to this church, to our church, her church, on Sunday. And something happened when she came, when she went home from church that day. "René, when we got home from church Sunday, we found our home burglarized. They broke the front door, took the TV, plus irreplaceable memorabilia, all my jewelry, and pretty much everything else in our entire house of value. They were wiped out." But that's not the whole story. She says, "They also took my purse with very special photos, cards, my social security card. Well, somebody found my purse in their front yard later that night, all wet. Its contents scattered. The cash gone, of course. Well, this person who found it laid out all the contents to dry in her house, found my name on one of the cards, called me. I came over with a reward, of course. But she then told me how, as she was laying out the contents to dry, she noticed a stack of Scripture cards that I'd gotten at church that I'd forgotten were in my purse. And she read them. And then she told me she'd been going through some tough things in her life. And when she read those Bible verses, she had peace. She knew everything was going to be okay. And then I got to tell her about our church. And I gave her a hug, and I said she could keep those cards, and she clutched them like they were treasure and hugged me back.

Listen to this. So I'm thinking how amazing is God that he would use a way to use even this to find a path to touch the heart of a woman who desperately needed hope from him. She says, "So my prayer this morning is to give God thanks for using even this bad circumstance to allow me to witness his sovereign power." That is the perspective that gratitude brings. And I know that out of the ashes of this fire, we are going to hear similar stories. And that's why we're partnering with churches, because they're the ones that are going to hear those stories and pass them on to us. And that brings me to the second thing that the root of gratitude gives me. It gives me what I call protection to guard against cynicism. Protection to guard against cynicism. It's the antidote to what you could call spiritual heart disease.

So let me be very transparent here. Let me give you kind of a glimpse behind the scenes as I prepped for this message this week. Early in the week, I did a word search on all the times that thankfulness, thanks, gratitude appears in Scripture, right? There's a ton of verses that I couldn't all include in the sermon, obviously. And I found one that at first I thought, "Well, I'm not going to use that one because it doesn't apply in this case." But now it's my favorite one in your notes, Ephesians 5:4, and wait for it, wait for my explanation. "Upseen stories, foolish talk, coarse jokes. These are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God." Now, at first I read that and I thought, "Well, I don't happen to swear, and so this doesn't apply to me. You know, Valerie needs to hear this, but I certainly don't need to hear this right now." And then suddenly it struck me. Paul's point is that coarse language coarsens your soul. And before you go, "All church lady," and go, "That's right, it's all about those people who swear." It's broader than that. The broader principle is this. Your words affect your life. This is very biblical, including the words you speak to yourself because they reveal your thoughts. There's a great old Roman quote, "Your soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." And that's so true.

In our culture, they'd call it a meta-narrative. That's how you narrate your life, how you describe your life to yourself. So here comes the true confessions. I have been stuck for the last month or so in a very negative narrative loop. And some of you can relate to this. Right now you're in this headspace where every single thing that happens to you, you're instantly cynical about it. You go negative. You are speaking coarse words to yourself about yourself. Some of you are talking to yourself with language that you would never use on anybody else. You're saying, "You're such a failure. You're so stupid," stuck in a negative cycle that has little to do with your circumstances and everything to do with the narrative you are telling yourself about your life. This is why two people can be in the exact same circumstance and one of them is at peace and one of them is completely in despair. This is why some of you are struggling right now with resentment about your life, about your marriage, about your job or something else. This is why some of you are just in a bad mood all the time these days. You're looking for evidence to justify your own negative, cynical self-narrative.

So what do you do about this? Well, our culture agrees that this is not a good thing, but it tells you to correct this narrative by telling yourself self-esteem stuff like, "I'm the man, you know. I'm the woman. I'm awesome." That's fine, but the problem is when you're in that negative headspace, you don't believe that for a second. The Bible has a slightly different answer. The Bible tells you to correct that negative metanarrative by focusing on God's grace, on the gifts of God that are all around you. You say, "Well, how do I notice those? Let me give you a two-word prayer that will change your life." Ready for this? Thank you. Just start looking around and whatever you see, pray thank you because you're going to see some reasons to thank God for it. And in that moment, you are going to be like a tree with roots in dry alkaline soil that tentatively at first, like a swimmer dipping a toe into a pool, starts putting down roots into fresh water. And it's going to change your life because it changes your narrative.

In fact, I want to give you a Thanksgiving week challenge. Ready for this? This week, every morning when you wake up, just sit on the edge of your bed before you check the NPR, the CBS News headlines, before you check the Santa Cruz Sentinel mobile app or whatever you go to, before you check your Facebook feed. First thing, sit on the edge of your bed and think of five things to thank God for. I saw a Wall Street Journal article, "The Health Benefits of Gratitude." Gratitude lowers stress, lowers blood pressure, lessens depression. It's as good as a pill, they say. And so if you start each day with gratitude, you're going to be healthier. It's protection against heart disease and protection against spiritual heart disease. And this brings me to the third way gratitude roots me in God's love, no matter the heat, no matter the drought. It gives me the gift of presence, as in the ability to stay present in the moment.

Our culture moves so fast, but the Bible says things like, "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad today." Here's how gratitude helps me to really put down roots and enjoy God's love every day. Gratitude helps me linger long enough to be blessed. One story. Years ago, it was just one of those busy weeks, had a thousand things to do. And it was late one night and I was all in a bad mood because I was getting my laptop and everybody else was asleep and I had to trudge over to the dining room table to do some more work, you know, got to write a sermon to preach at that stupid church, you know. I'm thinking about all this stuff to be honest. And as I'm walking down the hallway, the door to our youngest son, David's room is slightly ajar and he's the only one of our kids left in the house. He was about 12 years old. I just turned 12 and he still looked just like a little boy. And the other kids are 18 and 20 at the time and they're already out of the house. They're off in college and working and they moved out already. They couldn't wait apparently, but they're gone. And as I walk past, some thought just drops into my head. At one point in their lives, it was the last night I ever put them to bed as children because the next morning they woke up and they were already well on their way to adulthood. You see? And now they're adults and they're gone. And I realized David at 12, although he was still just such a little boy, he was right on the cusp of that. And I thought, "This could be the last night I've ever put him to bed as a child." And so I snuck in and he was sleeping and I just prayed over him and I'm crying. I said, "God, thank you so much for David, Christian Schlepfer. Thank you for his boyhood. And now that he's ready to graduate into young adulthood, I just pray your blessings on him." And it completely changed my attitude. Completely changed my attitude. And by the way, have you ever noticed how your children are so adorable when they're sleeping? Anybody else experienced that? They move me when they're unconscious. Anyway, but that's just one example of how in every moment you can have a reminder to be grateful if you're looking.

So you can see how gratitude helps you put down roots. In fact, let's practice this right now. Hold up your left hand if you can. Hold up your left hand and wiggle your fingers and look at your hand right now. Your hand, did you realize your hand is a medical marvel? If your hand can do that, that's something to be grateful to now. Keep holding up your hand. I didn't tell you to put it down. On my left wrist, I've got a wrist watch, probably a lot of you do too. Look at it and look at the second hand ticking. Every single second is a gift of God that he gave you. Don't put your hand down yet. Keep an eye. Now on my left hand, I have a ring, a wedding ring, and that reminds me of the enormous gift of God that my beautiful wife Lori is to me. Now look at your, keep looking at your hand. Now wiggle those fingers again because it reminds me that the God of all creation chose to become incarnate and he as a baby had a hand just as real and just as flesh as your hand is. And then put your index finger or your pointer finger from your other hand right here on your wrist. That reminds me that nails were driven into his hand so that your sins could be forgiven and that his hand was resurrected and made whole. And that reminds me that my hand is going to be resurrected one day too. You see how every moment has something that you could be grateful for five or six things in. If you're looking and this, do you see how this shows me how gratitude puts down roots into it. You can put your hand down into a daily awareness of God's love and then that root produces fruit. No root, no fruit. Deep root, great fruit.

And the good thing is there's a great opportunity to put down roots this week. What's coming up on Thursday? Thanksgiving. Did you know that's actually a very biblical holiday? 3,000 years ago the people of Israel, they had a harvest festival too. And the New Living Translation puts it like this. God tells them celebrate the harvest festival. Celebrate it to honor the Lord your God. In other words, don't let your harvest festival just blow past you. Use it to honor God and to kind of tune up your soul with this great habit. So kind of to help you do this on the back of your notes, I put something I call Thanksgiving soul prep. You can meditate on the verses and the prompts here each day this week and then you know what will happen if you kind of tune your soul up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. On Thursday you'll be ready because does this ever happen to you? You go around the to somebody says let's go around the table and share what we're grateful for. Has that ever happened to you? And you're stumped, right? Just in the moment you're like I don't I can't think of anything and you just you're flooded and so you disagree with what the person before you said. Yeah, well I'm thankful for that too. I said I was thankful for my wife. Why are you thankful for my wife? You know, so this this is gonna help with that.

Bottom line is this, you want to bear fruit, grow roots by developing the habit of gratitude. And I'll close with this. I've told some of you before that the last three phrases my dear mom could ever say as her Alzheimer's disease worsened. The last three sentences she could utter for a number of months before her death were these, I love you, beautiful, and thank you. Those are three pretty good phrases to be left with. I love you, beautiful, and thank you. What I now realize that I got to see was this. Long after most of her cognitive functions were gone, her lifelong habit of gratitude had put down such deep roots that almost as a knee-jerk reaction to life she was saying I love you, beautiful, thank you. In other words, she had roots that reached deep so she endured the heat and endured the drought and her leaves stayed green and even in her dementia she actually never stopped producing fruit. And that can be true of you and me as well. Let's pray together.

Lord, first again we just want to pray for everybody impacted by the fires. Give them strength and hope. And secondly, I pray for everybody here who has been allowing themselves to kind of go negative because it seems the world's kind of going negative. Help us put our roots down, deep, deep, deep down into your love for us, which starts when we receive you as our Lord and Savior, as a free gift of your grace, and then it continues as we keep saying thank you for your grace all around us. Every day we don't deserve it but we get it. May we make it our habit to put down roots into an awareness daily of God's love so we bear the fruit of the Spirit forever. In Jesus' name, amen.