[2023.4.15] The Basin: The Quick Shift From Anxious To Grateful

Say this out loud. A grateful heart is a stable heart. Say it again. A grateful heart is a stable heart. Colossians 2, 6, 7. Check this out. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted, built up in him, strengthened in the faith and overflowing with thankfulness as you were taught. Did I get that right? Let me check myself. I'm going off a memory from, like, 10 years ago when I did that scripture for a whole New year series. The New Rules of Resolution. I don't think you could find that one online. The New Rules of Resolution. Let's see if I got it right. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord. I think that's what I said. So far, so good. Continue to live in Him. Well, this is a little bit different because I think it's a different version of the niv. This version says, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith, as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. All right, so my word order was a little off, but I think if. I think if you check that, NIV 1984 is closer to this. Makes me want to run and go get it, but I'm not going to. They changed the version. So let's work off of the one I have in my mind. Can we do that? This idea that any time that I decide in my life to leave a state of anxiety or fear through a practice of gratitude and faith is new to me. I don't think that I was trained in this. I don't think that my parents were trained in this through their upbringing. Now, I'm not saying my parents didn't demonstrate this principle because I believe that both of my parents were able to rise high above the limitations that could have been set in their life. And what they passed on to me and what they gave me, I'm very grateful for. Don't get that twisted. I'm just saying that I am having to coach myself now at this stage of my life in the practice of getting to the place where I need to be mentally and emotionally independent of external factors. See, even in my Christian faith, a lot of times I would look for the evidence that God was with me in a given situation, and I would base that on other people's reactions or certain results. Even in my preaching, I would look and see, do they look like that they're liking this or getting this or this is clicking? And I would almost trust the response of the audience more than I trusted the truth God gave me. So in the last several years, specifically God has been shifting me to where I realized that the internal world that I create and the internal world that I play host to based on my thoughts, my intake, the things that I say to myself, the things that I believe that are said by others, things about me, things about God, things about life, things about situations, things about challenges, things about probabilities, things about the economy, all of those go in to me. And the way I process them, and not only the way I process them, but the actual things that I'm processing the most will essentially create the life that I experience on the outside. Now, this is nothing new, but it's just not the way that I thought about things. I tended for years to make myself a victim of things that were happening on the outside, rather than seeing myself as an architect of the world that I was building on the inside. And instead of going to God's blueprint of what does it look like for me to have the mind of Christ, I basically was just taking the mind of the flesh. What's the mind of the flesh? It's basically the patterns of this world. Whatever was kind of like programmed, conditioned into us through our habitual way of doing things. And, you know, realizing that we have control over the access that we give to the thoughts that we think is one of the most revolutionary things that we can ever understand. Because anytime my sense of well being depends on something external, it's a setup for instability. Anytime that I'm waiting for my life to be more balanced based on schedule, timing, seasons, I'm just setting myself up for instability. There will always be something in my life that comes along and boom, knocks me off balance. I wish I could demonstrate it for you right now. Perhaps I can. Let's see, how balanced is this going to be? Right? That's about how stupid it is for us to get up in the morning and just see what our mood is. For those of you who can't see this right now, and you're listening to it, I'm putting a pencil on the point of my. Let me do it this way. I'm putting a pencil on my palm and I'm letting it sit and then I'm letting go of it and it's falling. That's what's happening. That's what that sound is, right? Pencil point on my palm, nothing supporting it, just in my open palm. And it's a very silly picture of how silly it is for me to depend on other factors in life to give me balance. Balance has to happen in my belief system. Balance has to happen in my own sense of boundaries that I put in my life internally. Because I can't always control what happens outside of my brain. But I have to get better at managing what happens in that brain, how I interpret events, give meaning to them. And the place that I wanted to start from was the idea that gratitude can happen so fast that it can almost match the pace of anxiety and fear when it comes. I have found nothing that can match the pace, the velocity and the force of anxiety and fear like gratitude, which leads to faith, which allows me to be open and receive the flow of the Holy Spirit. Why did I quote that scripture at the beginning, Colossians 2, 6 and 7? Because it connects two things that I don't think we often connect. We feel like completely susceptible to every mood and feeling and wind of change that comes in the world. And things that people say and things that people throw at us that we weren't expecting. And we spend our whole lives, or just our whole day or our whole morning or whatever it is, just off balance. And stability has to come from within. It can never depend on someone else or something else. I know we need people to support us. I know there are going to be times where we all fall down and didn't see that coming. I got hit upside my head with something a few days ago that just came from an unusual place. It was a person I didn't expect to take that point of view. And I felt attacked, honestly. But you know, when something like that does attack, or when just out of nowhere you feel this wash of worry, what has to happen real quick is you got to get grateful, even just at the simplest level. And so when Paul says, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. Rooted, built up in him. That rooted thing, that built up thing. Both of those, one from agriculture, one from architecture, write those two things down. Agriculture, architecture. Both of those images speak to stability. Agriculture. Rooted. What is my mind rooted in? What routine is my day rooted in my week, rooted in my year? Rooted in. Is it rooted in gratitude? Is it rooted in guilt? Is it rooted in greed? Because Paul goes on to say, you want to be rooted in him, Christ, right? Not just the attitude of Jesus, but the actual person and identity of Jesus and what he's done for you, the grace he's given you, rooted in grace. Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him. This is how we flourish in our faith. Rooted, built up in him. Strengthened, strengthened. There's another stability. Word Strengthening the faith and overflowing with thankfulness, as you were taught. And I just mentioned that I wasn't necessarily taught the process by which my thoughts could go from, oh, my God, I can't believe they did that again. They are on my last nerve. I can't stand them. Is anybody around here even thinking, you know, why does that always happen, all of those things? They don't lead me to Jesus unless I'm saying, jesus, you got to help me right now before I kill somebody. But often they lead me to Jesus after they leave me hopeless. Ultimately, I go, God, I need you, but why not just get there quicker? Why not just overflow with thankfulness? A thankful thought is probably the most powerful weapon you have in your arsenal as a believer against the attacks of the enemy, especially in the form of anxiety and emotions. I am not one of these preachers that believes that everything that happens that's bad comes from the devil. I subscribe more to the proverb where the farmer, you know this proverb. I'm going to give it to you again. The farmer had a horse, and the horse ran off. And the neighbors came in the surrounding houses from the surrounding places in the village and said to the farmer, we're so sorry you lost your horse. That's terrible. The farmer said, maybe the next day that horse came back with seven other horses. I don't remember how many. Somebody's going to say it was three, it was eight, don't care. Say eight horses came back the next day, the one that he lost and seven more. The farmer said, oh, wow. The neighbors came and said, that's wonderful. The farmer said, maybe the next day the son was training one of the new seven horses, and he fell off and broke his arm because the horse was hard to train. The neighbors came that night and said, that's horrible. Your son broke his arm. And the farmer said, maybe the next day the army recruiter came looking for whether or not any of the farmer's sons would go fight in the war. And they couldn't take him away to war because he had a broken arm. And all the neighbors came around that night and said, isn't that wonderful? Your son doesn't have to fight in a war. And the farmer said, maybe the end. I love that story. My favorite story. My favorite story. Because the thing that you're griping about and groaning about today may be the thing that you're most grateful for. A year from now, a month from now, 10 years from now, it may be indirect, it may be so disconnected that you don't even say, oh, that led to, that led to, that led to that. Because God sometimes likes to be more anonymous, so he doesn't connect all the dots. He doesn't stand at every blessing and say, this is me, this is me. No, he wants us to realize that it is a gift. Another passage I was studying this morning was talking about how the gift comes through perseverance, a really good one. I want to teach a video teaching on the subject of how to grow through what you go through. I know that's already been done before and I googled it and it's already kind of a book or something like that, and I'm sure it's been said a bunch of times, but isn't that what we want is to continue to live in him, rooted, built up in him, grow through the things that we go through? And what I want us to stop and think about today is how a lot of times in our lives we probably block what God is trying to grow in us because we can't get to a place of thankfulness to go. Lord, I thank you that either way you're using could be it may be a gift that God gives and he may put some space between gifts so you can recognize, oh, this is a gift that God gave me. So that you can look back and in remembrance and reflection realize this is a gift. Sometimes saying that in present tense is helpful for your faith because you'd be looking at something that almost looks like a gag gift, like, are you serious, God? Or even worse, sometimes you're standing there holding something that as you see it in its present form, it let me stay with my alliteration. It's a complete grind. It's like wearing at you. And I think what I'm learning more and more is how to get out of that grind of trying to make sense out of everything. Right now. Realize that agriculture God is rooting me in him and architecture, God is building me up. And it's all to make me stronger so that I'm not just falling down every time something that I don't see as favorable happens. And I don't get frozen in fear and I don't resist what God is doing through resentment. The exercise that I use is pretty common. You could pretty much see it on any social media thing, but it has a little bit of a twist to it. You know, keep a gratitude journal. I've tried to do that with varying degrees of success for years. Sometimes I don't have my notebook. Sometimes I don't want to pull out My phone. Because that's where my problem's coming from, what I like to do and what I'm learning to do. To say eight things I'm grateful for right now. The key to this is these are not the eight things. These are just eight things I can thank God for right now. Why eight? I like the number. I like it, and I like wordplay. And so grateful. See, eight is right there. Eight is the number of new beginnings. Eight looks like an infinity loop if you turn it on its side, kind of. Eight is the number of legs that a spider has, and he can spin his own web from the inside. Thank you, Bishop Jakes, for that amazing sermon years and years ago. The spider's secret. Ah. I learned the secret of being content. I can spend something out of anywhere. I can spend something out of any situation. Paul said. And so Paul. Paul is teaching all through the New Testament, but specifically here, he said, the way to be rooted and built up and strengthened so that you're stable and to get back to a place of stability when you feel the winds of worry blow, when you hear the whisper of worry, and you go, oh, no, why am I here? A lot of times when you're in that state of mind, you can't stop the avalanche of anxiety unless you match it by getting out of that mindset and just start overflowing with thankfulness. Eight things. I did it a few minutes ago. I thought, oh, I can do the grateful eight right now. I can do the grateful eight. It's time for a grateful eight. Grateful eight. All right. I'm thankful for a wife that wants to go on a date with me tonight. And I don't stop long, but I'm thinking about maybe where we might go. I'm thankful for this room I have in my house to work out. I know not everybody has that, and it took me years and years to get it, but I have it now, and it helps me stay in shape. Now I'm not stopping this long, but I'm feeling all that as I go. That's two. I'm doing it on my hands. Ready? Let's go till we get a full spider, baby. Let's go till we get great eight. Oh, man. I had to stop and thank God while I was on my workout that, you know, my shoulders are feeling better because get in your 40s, man. Stuff starts knocking around. But I got through my whole workout. Felt pretty good. You don't thank God for that when you're 17. Elijah doesn't thank God that his shoulders aren't Hurting, but he will one day. So today I'm kind of thanking God for something that isn't bothering me as bad. I'm thanking God because I got somebody coming in to help me with something today that I think could be really fun. Oh, oh. Elevation Rhythm has an album coming out tomorrow. I love it. I think it's going to be amazing. I think he's going to bless people. Oh, it feels so fresh and. Oh, God. You know, that's. That was several years in the process of that thing building, and look where it is right now. Only got five. Only got five. Oh, Abby's singing this weekend. I know I have to travel, and it's going to be kind of hard to manage it all, but, man, thank God that my daughter has a good, strong voice she could sing with. And then something flashed through my mind that was kind of like a negative thankful. It was like, I'm not going to the hospital today. Some people have to go in and out of the hospital. Doesn't make me better than them. It doesn't mean that they don't have a reason to be grateful. But I could be spending this day going to see somebody that I love who can't get out of a bed. But I'm not. Today I'm grateful. I'm thankful I got one more to go. You know what the problem was? Once I got to number eight, it wasn't coming up with number eight, it was stopping. Because once I gave my mind that thing to grab onto and to gravitate toward. Put those two down in your notes. Give your mind something different to grab onto. Not all the horrible things that may happen today, not all the horrible things that happened yesterday, not all the horrible things that happened 25 years ago. Because your mind will start manufacturing even more, splicing memories together to make it worse and to make you feel more miserable than you do. But look, give your mind something to magnetize, like the goodness of God, the grace of God. Then it'll just. It'll go kind of berserk. It might be a slow start, but notice, Paul said, overflowing with thankfulness. That means once you turn on that faucet, faith comes out, favor comes out. But you got to realize it's very quick. I don't remember what my eighth one was in there a minute ago. I don't even know if those seven were the same that I said. And I definitely used my setup of the farmer intentionally at the beginning to talk about those eight horses coming back, because I thought that'd be fun to do that number eight, you know, to wrap it around because, hey, maybe, maybe. And that number eight. Thank God for something that maybe, maybe I had to thank God for yesterday. Illustration that came to my mind for a sermon that I might get to use Sunday. I don't know if I'm going to get to use it or not because I'm still not completely narrowed down, but. Oh, that might be fun. Maybe. Now watch this. The grateful eight opened my mind to all the good things that may be in front of me versus all the horrible things that have happened to me, which I have some. You may have more. We're not here to really compare our horrible. Our files of horrible history, are we? Is that we got it for today. A grateful heart is a stable heart. And I like this number eight because not only does it mean new beginnings, but I can get there quick. Not three. They're getting enough. Got to get into a little bit of nuance. I could go on with it. I don't like to list all of mine for people because they might say, well, come on now you're just thanking God for material things. Well, he didn't give them. Who should I thank for him? Should I thank the things? Thank you, Bic lighter. Thank you, fancy pencil that Karen gave me. Is that what I should be thanking? No. I thank the one who holds my life. I thank the one. That's one big thing about gratitude that sometimes gets stripped when we just teach it as a practice is that we aren't grateful to the thing. We're grateful to the God who gives the thing. Because if he takes it away, he can give another one. If he takes it away, he can give another one. Another one, another one, another one, another one. How many do you have? That's about all. But God has unlimited. Okay, so I need you to get eight on your mind today. You can write them down, list them out. It's better out loud. It's better out loud. It's better if you can kind of look up, get your eyes open, say them out loud with a little bit of breath. But I'm telling you, a grateful heart is a stable heart. You want to be rooted and built up in Him. Give thanks to God and don't force yourself to go. Salvation, mercy, grace. It's okay if you puncture those a little bit and go, you know, God, thank you. That so and so. Yesterday wasn't as hard on me as they could have been. I sometimes I'm too hard on my kids, especially the boys. They say I'm way too easy On Abby. But yesterday, Elijah did something that was very mildly irresponsible, and he didn't make a big deal out of it. He just thanked me. He's like, thank you, thank you. Because I could tell he was beating himself up over it. Well, sometimes you thank God that what could have happened didn't happen. Sometimes you think, God, oh, man, I got away with that one. That could have been close. Not that you want to just keep doing dumb stuff, but instead of just thinking, God, I thank you for your grace. That's kind of generic, man. That's kind of generic. Generic is the cheap one. Get more expensive. God, I thank you that this could have gone the other way. And, you know, I kind of wanted to do that bad thing, but you blocked me off. Thank you. That's cool. The key to this for me isn't whether it's eight or if your favorite number is five, because five is the number of grace, or that you get really deep, philosophical. Father, I thank you for the perspicuity of your power. I don't even know if that's a word. Father, I thank you for the salient wisdom of your proverbs of thine own proverbs. Even now, today, God, I thank you for thy principles and thy precepts. I don't mean that. I'm just trying to give you some street fighting stuff. You get in there and that devil's knocking you around. He does it to all of us, boy. Don't try to fight him with his weapons. Goliath comes at you with a sword. You come against him with a sling and a stone. Bam. Maybe you do five smooth stones. I don't care. Find an image that matters to you. I like my eight. I could do eight more right now. They could get as silly as you want them to. Those records on that wall, those are songs from previous seasons that I was a part of writing and putting out. And I put them there to remind me that they helped and blessed and ministered to a lot of people. So now every song that I write that I don't know if it's any good, I'm like, well, God, every once in a while, you give us a good one. Well, that's a big thing, right? Little things, too, man. It could be big. It could be little. You can bring them over. There's no rules to this. So should I have my gratitude? The point is, it brings you back to a place, you know. Let me finish my thought. Should I do my gratitude with new gratitudes every time? Should I do them in pencil or pen? Should I do them digitally? Should I get a journal? That's not this class. This class today is. Oh, I can't stop the bad thoughts from coming. Don't stop them. Stabilize. How you stabilize. Get to the goodness of God. Of course. We can sing a worship song. We can pray a prayer. I have a prayer that I pray almost every day this year. I don't know if I started it until about February. Right around my birthday, February 19th, I started praying. God, you have done great things for me. My heart is filled with praise today. That's how it starts. And then it goes on to ask God for more flows of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus, God, for your glory. My joy, building others up. I believe I receive it right now. I believe right now I receive it. And it starts intentionally with God, you have done great things for me. And so I like the word great. I like giving the glory to God for it. It's not just thankful for the thing, it's grateful to God for the thing. Again, you don't have to start. Lord God, thou of heaven and earth, thou that gavest me this iPad to pull up these scripture and multiple translations. That's not the point. The point is, Lord, thank you that I can look up the versions of the scripture. Boom, right there. Lord, thank you that somebody is going to help me get this video off my computer and I might think of the specific person. Thank you for the person who goes every day that Christy takes these and they transcribe them, I can make that shift. That's what overflowing with thankfulness looks like. Because if you don't overflow with thankfulness, you will probably have a mind that's overrun with anxiety. If you don't overflow with thankfulness, then you're probably going to have a mind that's flooded with fear. You choose. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted, built up in him, strengthened, stable in the faith, overflowing with thankfulness. As you were taught, you may have been programmed according to a more pessimistic pattern of thinking, always finding what's wrong. You called that being realistic. Is that really realistic? Or is that just reactive, going around letting everything else control you? No, My heart is filled with praise today. Make the decision, make the shift. This is yours to use anytime you want. You can use this. Grateful 8. Thankful 3. If you're feeling kind of lazy, give it a name, give it an identity, and get to it quick. Don't wait till you get to the end. Get there quick. Should I fake grateful? Yeah, if what you mean is, should I take the action and wait for the feeling to catch up? Yeah. Because it's your quickest way out of the state that keeps you restricted, depressed, suppressed, shrinking, angry is the quickest way out. You don't have to tell anybody you're doing it. It's. It's better, kind of if you don't. You don't have to do it in an obnoxious way. Guys, in this meeting, I see we're getting negative. I think we need to be more thankful. Do it out loud. Do it inside. Do it outside. Do it inside. Do it. Do it. Do it three times a day. Morning, noon, night. No. Do it five times a day. Do it anytime you need to do it before you get to that instability that makes you irritable, insecure, erratic. Right? Use what you got. In order to use what you got, you got to know what you got. And the quickest way to get there is to go back just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. This is one way I have found to do it. A grateful heart is a stable heart. A grateful heart leads to a stable life. A grateful heart helps you to order your steps and walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. I pray that helps you today. Go do eight right now. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Hey. Thank you for watching. 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