NOV 23 2025 | Thanksgiving: The Other Spiritual Discipline

Sea Change Church · "Thanksgiving: The Other Spiritual Discipline" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · November 23, 2025
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

generation. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks, guys. The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, Chapter 5, Verses 12 through 24. "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it." This is the word of the Lord. (Instrumental music) Thanksgiving is more than a holiday.

It's an attitude of the heart. The Bible reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you." Gratitude is not just for moments when life feels full and blessings overflow. It's also for the quiet times, the challenges, and even the trials, because true thanksgiving rests not in what we have, but in the one who provides. Psalm 107:1 proclaims, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever." This Thanksgiving, may our hearts rise in worship, our words be filled with gratitude, and our lives reflect the goodness of God, for every gift, every blessing, and every moment, we give thanks to the Lord.

Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles, open up to 1 Thessalonians 5. We do an annual, um, sermon on Thanksgiving. We should probably do it more often. Uh, but it is key to what we do, and there's a keyword today, and this is a Hebrew word, and the word is, uh... See it in your notes there. You can download those online, uh, on the homepage, if you need that as well. Uh, the word is todah, okay? It's a Hebrew word.

Let's all say it together. One, two, three. Todah. Todah. We can do better than that. One, two, three. Todah. There we go. Todah, it means Thanksgiving. The key in the Hebrew understanding of thanksgiving is that it's expressed.It is something that is made verbal, it is actual an expression. It, it, it, it becomes formed. It's not just a thought. In the Hebrew understanding, it is a, you are giving a thanksgiving. I have become, um, frustrated, and I, and I understand that it's, it's, it's meant in a really good way, and no one is trying to be pejorative in any way, but when I hear something like friendsgiving.

I heard there was a petsgiving, okay? There are a bunch of people at the dog park where I go, I go to this dog park, right? And, uh, they're having a petsgiving, right? And I'm like, "What's my pet gonna give me other than problems," you know? (laughs) Just picking up after him. My dog now is about 115 pounds. That's a big house dog, I'm just telling you, that's a big dog. So we're trying to work him into so he just lives outside at this point.

Meant to live outside. (laughs) But the reason I have a problem with it is because when it's a petsgiving, or a friendsgiving, uh, I would rather if it would be friends giving thanks. Because we lose what it's all about, and what it's all about is the ability to give God thanks, to give other people thanks, in a way that actually changes them, in a way that changes you, in a way that changes society. Uh, according to the Hebrews, you would not be a thankf- known as a thankful person unless you were expressing gratitude.

And we'll talk, look at that here at the end in a moment, but I wrote in your notes if you have 'em, thanksgiving is one of the most powerful spiritual practices we have, because a grateful heart changes how we see God. Stop right there before I finish. A grateful heart will change the way that you see God, how we see ourselves, others, and ultimately how we see the world. Thanksgiving is spiritually supernatural. You can just see it as a, something you write on a card or something you say or when you say thank you. Uh, you can just say it, it's just a thing we do. But if you were to look at the biblical understanding, which you're gonna have an opportunity to do over the next 20 minutes with me, you would understand that God has imbued thanksgiving with supernatural power, power that will change you to the core.

And I will tell you, I, I pro- I promise you on this, if you just implement this sermon, this year, over the next two weeks, you will notice your life change. You will notice your personality change. Now you say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Personalities don't change. I've done Myers-Briggs. Personalities don't change. (laughs) I'm an E, N, A, B, C, Q," whatever it is, right? When you do that other one you're an eight and a seven and a six.

"Oh, I," and I, you know, whatever that one was called, I forgot what it was. They're just giving you a number. I love it. They always come up too. What's it called? Enneagram. Enneagram. I like the Enneagram. It's fun. We all, like, remember that was big. It was, it was fatty for a while. It was big. So people get arrogant. They go, they go, "You're an, oh, I know you're an eight. You're an eight with a seven wing aren't ya?

Yeah, I knew it, knew it." (laughs) I'm like, "What are you talking about seven wing? I ain't got no wings. What you talking about?" Personalities don't change. Well, I will tell you this, that if you become a person who expresses todah, thanksgiving, it will take the parts of your personality that are annoying- (laughs) ... and it'll minimize them. Your personality will change. It ain't gonna change. The core of it isn't gonna change, but those annoying bits are gonna get less annoying. So your personality's gonna change.

Those bits that everyone loves about you, and don't we all, you know, the StrengthFinders is another one. Joe s- everyone likes StrengthFinders. You've heard of that one. It just talks about how great you are, right? (laughs) Just, uh, rely on this, don't worry about that. S- see if that works in marriage, right? "Just do the stuff you're good at and tell your wife not to worry about the rest. I'm working on all the good stuff. Just my StrengthFinders." I'm shading all of 'em right now, I apologize, I apologize.

If you become a person of thanksgiving, it's gonna make the best parts of you better. Guaranteed. This works. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I was, um, with my wife and, and my kid, and I like to do little jokes. And I do little jokes that I oftentimes don't mean, and I realize sometimes I say things I don't mean. My daughter is, uh, Lucy, super fashionable, wearing this epic outfit that she loved, and it reminded me of, like, this steampunk something, you know, real fashionable but something from, like, The Lost Boys, you know what I mean?

From, from, from, uh, Peter Pan. It was awesome. It had a scarf, some, some leg warmers, some high Doc Martens, and, and I loved it. And I went, "You're putting off some Lost Boy vibes there, aren't ya?" I, oddly, that didn't go well. I'm surprised. (laughs) (laughs) It went less well with my wife, because three days earlier she was wearing this, like, black, big, you know, but the pants were baggy, like it makes 1990s look like it didn't exist anymore. It's like a, people wearing a tent.

They go to REI, they're just walking around with a tent. (laughs) She's wearing some baggy black, a baggy shirt, and I thought it looked awesome, but it looked like she was practicing at a dojo, you know what I'm saying? And so I, (laughs) I said to her, I said, "All you need is a black belt, and you'll look like you're from the dojo." And, and I was actually super appreciative. I thought it was awti- awesome. I, I loved it.

I- it didn't go great, I just gotta tell you. (laughs) We were getting on a plane to go to Scotland. She goes, "Maybe you should start thinking about what you, what you say, and maybe you could realize that some of these say- things you say are hurtful." And I'm like, "Well, I didn't mean it that way." "Well, when you say it..." So I'd made a decision two-and-a-half weeks ago, no more sarcasm, criticism fast, um, because what I was trying to say was actually appr- I literally was appreciative of those two outfits were amazing. I'm not just trying to cover right now.

It was amazing.But what I was trying to say in a joking way, 'cause I wanna get some laughs, right? It didn't work. And so for two and a half weeks, I have just said, "No sarcasm, no criticism, I'm gonna be thankful, I'm gonna be- I'm gonna bring gratitude." It has changed my life, and I'm telling you, the same thing will happen, because God has made it that way. The University of Los Angeles, as you'll see in your notes, did a study with 26,000 people, right? Here's what they found out with these 26,000 people. One, they found out that the people who were surveyed said, "Gratitude seems to reduce depression symptoms." Now, not saying it fixes it, uh, what somebody who struggles with depression doesn't need is just, "Think some happy thoughts, that'll work for you." I- we've been around long enough to know that doesn't work, right? That's not what they're saying.

There's 26,000 people that had said it reduced symptoms, just having gratitude. And if you struggle with that, wouldn't you be happy if you could just reduce the symptoms a little bit? That's just a study. This is from UCLA, and I put the footnote in the notes so you can look it up and read it yourself. Gratitude, it says, "Can be a coping tool for anxiety. Regularly practicing gratitude combats negative thinking patterns." Two things there.

One, we all have coping tools, right? I called them our comfort zones about a month ago, and as- I- I wish I wouldn't have preached it, 'cause it's really convicting. And every time I've thought about my comfort zone, or my- my- my- my reflexive comfort zone, that sermon has come back to me, and I realize that there are other ways to cope with things. And what this study found, and the Bible will tell you, is thanksgiving is one way that you can cope with that. It is a coping tool for anxiety.

Regularly practicing gradut- gra- um, gratitude combats negative thinking patterns. Patterns. The Bible, as we'll see here in just a moment, we'll get- we're gonna jump into this scripture real quick, uh, will tell you that God's will for you is to change your thinking patterns. The Bible, the word of God, prayer, meditation, these things, thanksgiving, will change your thinking patterns. It is easy to get into a negative thinking pattern. One of the things this study said, uh, it says, with sleep, the final point was that it helps you sleep.

And it says one of the things to do is if you, before you go to bed, you actually start listing off things. It said it works better if you write it, i- i- in the study, that if you actually write a journal. Um, but if you give 10 to 15 things you're thankful for before you go to sleep, you sleep better. So last night I was laying in bed, I was just doing it. Next thing I know, 94 sleep score on the Fitbit? Let's go. So I know it works. Um, 26,001 people did this study, and I was the first person. Go to verse 1. Let's dig into the word now.

Let's get a shovel and dig into God's word. "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances." Circle all. "For this is the will," circle will, "of God in Christ Jesus for you." I've never liked this verse. Not gonna lie. (laughs) I- I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but how many just love that verse, right? Why do we not love this verse? Because it's unattainable. At least, it seems unattainable.

Pray without ceasing? Now granted, Brother Andrew wrote a book, we all know it, Practicing the Presence of God. Okay, one guy, right, is Michael Jordan, right? He had some way to binary, in a binary in his brain, to think about G- God's presence while doing what he was doing. Most of us cannot think two things like that at once, and he wrote a whole book about it. And as I read it, I kept practicing. It's a great book.

Practicing the Presence of Gra- God by Brother Andrew. It's a- completely amazing. I was never able to do it. But an amazing book, right? This verse, until you look into what it actually means, will be frustrating because it goes to the idea of the will of God. I told you to circle will. We're gonna look at what will means in a moment. Before I tell you why now I like this verse, because I- I love the Bible, but certain verses I struggle with, right? Why all of a sudden this verse opened up to me in a new way, we're gonna get to that in a second.

The first thing I wanna say is this is a spiritual algorithm for life change. Th- this is a spiritual algorithm. Now I- I don't like simple fixes. Five things you need to know to change your business. There is- if- if I'm on Instagram and the thing starts with, "I'm gonna give you three..." Boom, you're gone. Like I can- I- my trigger finger on a video like that, I'll never watch it. I don't care the three things, the nine things, the four things.

But this is actually a spiritual algorithm that God gives you because he wants to become- you to become more like who it speaks about at the end of the verse, and who is that? Christ Jesus, right? This is a spiritual algorithm that if you practice it, because it is meant to be a practice, thanksgiving is a spiritual discipline, to be thankful until you change your thinking patterns of negativity, upsetness, always, you know, mad, whatever, complaining or whatever it is, which is if you look at a news feed, news feeds are the opposite.

Any news feed you go to will be the exact opposite of this verse. You will, uh, one in 100 find the story about the person who saved the puppy and it'll be amazing. It's not gonna cover for the other 99 stories that were meant to emotionally incite you to upsetness or some emotional trauma of some kind. This is a spiritual algorithm that says if you do it. Let's look what that algorithm is. Rejoice always. Just means rejoice. What does that mean?

It means put joy into your life, to enjoy. When I work with married couples, I often tell them, "One of the things you need to do is in your- in your marriage take the things that give you both joy," enjoy, the prefix, means to insert into, "and put those into your marriage." Do you both like hiking or do- are there things that you enjoy doing? You can do it individually as well.Find five to seven things, let's talk about it on a personal level, in your life. When I was struggling with anxiety, I realized my whole life had become trying to make sure I wasn't anxious, which just makes you anxious.

And I sat down and began to wro... and I wrote and God... I went, I went up to a retreat and the Lord said, "Write down what you enjoy." And I realized I was no longer doing anything I enjoyed. I like walking, I like playing basketball. I like hanging out with my kids. I like reading the word of God. I like reading books. I like being with my wife. I like cooking. I like playing guitar. All these things. All of a sudden, I started doing them and putting them into my cower, re... i- into my calendar. I had... started to enjoy my life more.

You wanna know how to enjoy your life more? Start doing things that bring you joy. Rejoice and joy, rejoice in everything, bring joy into everything that you do. When you are going somewhere that you don't want to go, and on the way there you stop to pause to say, "God, thank you for that sunflower over there. Thank you that you brought rain, because we need rain to fill our reservoirs. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You...

I wanna rejoice in you, God." All of a sudden, you are rejoicing in a circumstance that you don't want to do. How often are you doing that? Or are we regularly just pulling the trash off the internet, the trash off the, off the things that we hear, and dumping it into our life over and over again? That is the opposite, is the antithetical to rejoice. First thing is rejoice. Next thing, pray without ceasing. Now, does that mean that you're constantly, as you're talking to somebody, you're just mumbling to yourself (mumbling) They're gonna think you're weird, right?

(laughing) Pray without ceasing is like work out without ceasing. What does that mean? Does it mean every... you're just constantly doing this? No. It means every day, every third day, whatever it is you put your shoes on, you go get in the gym. You do it without ceasing. God is not telling you to be superhuman, to do something you can't do. We're gonna see that in just a moment when we look at that word will of God. Okay? It says He wants you to pray without ceasing, which means when you fall down, you get back up because you begin to pray.

You will pray without ceasing, over and over and over. The next thing we see there is give thanks in all circumstances. Difficult to do. Really difficult to do. Hard to give thanks in all circumstances. And why? For this is the will of God for Christ Jesus in you. So the first... that's, that's a spiritual algorithm. If you begin... if you just take verse 1, okay? Excuse me, it is Verse 12. I apologize. That's the jet lag.

But nonetheless, uh, let me see. Is, is it 16? Hang on, I gotta find out where I am. I'm gonna find out where I am. There it is. It's Verse 16, Chapter 5, Verse 16, uh, got the notes in this morning, so we didn't get edited. This is what happens when I do the editing, okay? Verse 16, I apologize. "If you do these things, rejoice always, you continue to rejoice, you pray without ceasing, you give thanks in every circumstance," no matter what.

At least you give thanks to God for saying, "You're God. I wanna thank you for being God, that even in this bad circumstance, I know you're in charge and you're God and you love me. I give you thanks for that." That's how you do that. "For this is the will of God." This is the will of God. U- um, uh, Charles Spurgeon said this. "When joy and prayer, joy and prayer are married together, their firstborn child is gratitude." And this is what it's speaking about when it says, "Pray without ceasing." This is taking prayer and it's surrounding prayer with rejoicing, with thanksgiving, in order that you might live what? In the will of God.

Now, let's talk about this idea of the will of God, because whenever I've seen this before in the past... and the reason I haven't en- liked this verse much, it's okay not to like everything in the Bible, okay? It's okay... uh, y- y- hear me on this one, all right? Put your r- ears on. It's okay not to agree with everything in the Bible. Hang on, hang on. Wait, wait, wait. Stop. (laughing) Somebody's gonna cut that out and put it online, right?

As long as you still obey it. Amen. There's a bunch of stuff God has about this, this, and I'm like, "I don't agree with that. I wouldn't do that that way. You know, God, I'd, I would not do it that way. I don't agree with it, I don't think it should be done that way, but you know what I do agree? That your word is your word, that I am an obedient servant of you, and who am I to ask, tell the master how he should run his world." Mm-hmm.

"So I'm gonna do it out of obedience, but I'm not happy about it nor do I agree with it." Now, we will get to a place when we start understanding the will of God where you probably will start to agree with it. But I talk to people all the time that s- bring up these issues, especially non-believers, and I just say, "You know, you don't have to agree with everything to start with." And that... I understand there's some nuance in that, and this is one of those things that I really struggled with, with this whole passage until I read David Guzik. And if you haven't read D- David Guzik, he does the Blue Letter Bible, takes the Greek word and the whole thing, and he broke down the understanding of, of, of the will of God in this.

And what he said when it comes to thanksgiving, giving thanks, which is todah, that word, right? That expressive giving of thanks. He says the word will here is not so much a command as it is an empowerment. L- uh, meaning, when I've read it in the past, I've thought, this is God's will, that you always pray, you never stop praying, you're always rejoicing, you're always giving thanks. I thought its, its, its i- I can't human- I can't do...

I humanly can't do that, but he's commanding me to do it. What David Guzik says is it's something more like this, and this is my analogy, not his. (laughing) Imagine I say to my daughter, I get one of my daughters and I say, "Hey, um..."I rented this amazing car for you, and I, and I got it, and I got the keys. And I've rented a cabin for you to go up and go ski in Vail, and I've got the concierge service, and I, I, I just buffed it out. I got this whole trip." "It is my will for you to go on this trip. It is my will for you to go on this..." "I got it. I can only do it this weekend, but it's, uh, it's, it...

I, I got it. It's for you." And my daughter would say something... "But, well, I have a, an anatomy final, and I can't go on the trip." "But it's my will." You see? There's a difference between God's will, when he says, "I'm gonna will the things in Revelation to happen, because it's my will. It will happen." And then God's willingness for something to happen if we wanna partner with him or if we can partner with him.

So what David Guzik says in this, and this changes the whole understanding of the will in this usage, and you're gonna have to dive deeper into it. You can go to the Blue Letter Bible, look up this verse and go deeper into the Greek and what he says. But this is what he wrote. He wrote, "The thought isn't this is God's will so you must do it. The, the thought is rather, this is God's will so that you can do it." It isn't easy to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, but we can, we can do it because it is God's will for us to do it. I wrote, "This is not duty demanded; it's grace supplied. It's not obligation; it's empowerment." You see? It isn't feeling guilty, "God, I can't do this right now." It's, "God, give me the strength to do this.

I know it's your will to do this for me, and when you help me..." He will empower you to do that. He will provide everything you need. Why? So that you can become more like Christ Jesus. That's what it says at the end of the verse there at 16. "For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus." For who? Whom? You. It is for you that you might be changed. In Jesus's time, Jesus would have understood thanksgiving in the todah understanding. Where he didn't have...

He wasn't lucky enough to have Paul to explain things to him, right? In Jesus's time, he didn't need Paul to explain things to him, obviously. But I wanna give you just a couple quick verses that show this idea of beginning to become a person of thanksgiving, a person of gratitude. Here's a few that you can see. Leviticus 7:11-15. "For the law of the peace offering for thanksgiving." It talks about an offering that was something that was visible, where you would go and you would give something in thanksgiving in front of the congregation. It was public. In the scripture, there is nowhere where thanksgiving, that I could find, does not become public in some way. It's always spoken.

It's todah. It's always spoken. It's always written. It's always sung. It's always exclaimed. Well, David has thanksgiving. He was praying in his heart. That wasn't exclaimed in the Psalms. You read the Psalm. It was exclaimed. It was there. I could find nowhere where somebody does not give gratitude in their heart to God without there being some kind of offering, something that is coming out. If, if you are thankful for somebody, let them know it. When you say, "Thank you," this is one of the best things you can do. "Thank you for this." (laughs) There is an addendum to thanks that will make it so much more rich.

If you go up to your husband and say, "I want to thank you so much that you did such-and-such for me. I am so thankful for that." Or if you go to your boss or to, to whoever, whomever you go to. It is something that is written that is said. There's a bunch of other ones there in Psalm. "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving." It is a sacrifice, because when you are giving thanks... This is why I'm, I'm, I'm so stuck on saying thanksgiving or friends giving thanks, because it is acknowledging someone above yourself and it takes humility.

Thanksgiving will turn y- will, will begin to turn you into someone who is more humble than who you are at the moment. "Let them offer..." Psalm 107, "offer, uh, sacrifices of thanksgiving." Psalm 116, "I will offer. It's an offering to you, a sacrifice of thanksgiving." Amos 4:5, "I will offer..." Once again, you are offering. You're giving it away. It is really, really hard. It is hard at first, but all of a sudden it will change you into somebody that most everyone wants to be around.

It was funny. I started this new thing where I'm gonna start doing thanksgiving now, because my wife said, "Don't call me. Le- let... May... Tell me my outfits look like I'm from a dojo." And I said, "Okay. I'm not gonna do that anymore." I began to offer thanksgiving and I was with somebody, uh, you know, when I was over in Europe, not from our trip, somebody else, and I was like, "Man, it is, it is bea- look how beautiful it is." It snowed our final day in Scotland, and we drove through this gorgeous thing.

And like three times, and on the third time I'm like, "It is just so gorgeous." And they said to me, "Yeah, you've al- you've already said that." (laughs) I was like, "What would you rather me do?" You know what I mean? "This is horrible. I hate this country." You know what I mean? "What have you guys done?" You know? Couldn't, couldn't handle that there was actually that happens. And so the question is, is what happens when God's peop- when, when God's people give thanks? There's three quick things.

One, thanksgiving brings God's peace. Now let's go to the New Testament now. Philippians 4:6-7. "With thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God and," what? "The peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How many of you need a heart guard?I know I need a heart guard. Guard your hearts. Scripture even tells you to guard your heart, but who's guarding it? I need Christ to guard my heart, the spirit to guard my heart. When you have thanksgiving, it brings God's peace to you.

It brings God's protection to you, as we'll see in a moment. Second thing we see is thanksgiving is a doorway into God's presence. Psalm 104. "Enter His gates with," what? Thanksgiving. "Thanksgiving, and His courts with praise." If you want to spend time, which you can do now, according to Hebrews, you can boldly go before the throne of God. You know, the book written to the Jews, that book was written to Hebrews. And to tell them that they could basically, not metaphorically, but in the spiritual world, you could now run into the Holy of Holies, spiritually now, and jump on God's lap and say, "What's up, Dad?" and give him a kiss on the cheek, basically is what Hebrews says, was anathema, because they knew that only the high priest could go.

You can do that today, and that, that, that the, the doorway to that aw- opening sometimes is just thanksgiving. Enter His courts with thanksgiving and with praise. I would say if, you know, just begin... I was thinking, uh, Chris, I was thinking we need to write a song on thanksgiving. All the songs, so many songs get written today, "God, I'm, I'm doing bad. You're good." And it's just that, I don't know, sometimes I...

I'm just ready for a song about something else. A song about thanksgiving. Why? So we can enter His courts with praise, so that you have, you, we see that it brings you peace, it brings His presence. Do you need His presence? You want God's presence? Thanksgiving is like a magnet for God. It is like a magnet for God. And then thanksgiving wins battles. Psalm 50:23. "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me." You wanna glorify God?

Give thanksgiving as a sacrifice. It says, "It glorifies me to one who orders his way rightly, I will show," what? "The salvation of God." Hoo, do I not need to be saved. Now, I know I'm saved. I'm going to h- I know I'm going to heaven. I have a s- assurance of my salvation in Christ for what He did, but I get myself into a lot of scuffles. (laughs) Lotta little problems, lotta little issues. I need some salvation. It says right here that if you need salvation, from whatever you're going through, it says that thanksgiving is one of the ways which God uses. It's supernatural in that it brings God's salvation to you. Before I give you my practical takeaways, I just gotta tell you, I met one of the most miserable people I've ever met in my life- (laughs) Yeah. ... in business class. Now, I can't afford to fly business class, right? And you don't pay for me to fly business class at the church, FYI, right? But here's what I know. This is what I know about airports.

If I'm at an airport and they say, "Uh, we're coming out right now, the, uh, flight is gonna be really full today," um, if you get your name called, there's gonna be three things that are gonna happen. I know this. I've flown enough to know this. And the first thing is gonna be, "Sir, we'd like to offer you an $800, $200, or $300 travel voucher," to mess your entire trip up. And I'm just like, "I've done that before, and I'm not taking the voucher. No." So that's the first thing that's gonna happen.

Second thing, they just gonna tell you, you know, if you're on a JetBlue holiday or easyJet, they're just gonna say, "We've just decided you're not going where you're going today. We're gonna put you somewhere else." Because- Can I get sued for that? Uh, uh, I don't know. Maybe. So I take it back. I love easyJet. It's amazing. (laughs) Or they're gonna call your name and they're gonna say, "Hey, we've decided to give you a complimentary upgrade to business class." Uh, my name got called, and I went up and I thought, "Oh, it's one of three, it's one of three." And he said, "Sir, please enjoy your complimentary upgrade to business class." I'm like, "Let's go! Let's go!

Yes I will!" (laughs) I danced back to my wife, you know. I shouldn't have danced, but I did actually dance back to my wife, and that, and so I was (laughs) , I was... And I'll tell you, if you're in business class, I'll just give you a little hint, right? Don't post it on social media. No one wants to see it. I, I, I know, I know. (laughs) Just don't. Uh, well, you can send it to your friends. I sent it to Greg, my buddy Greg over there.

I wa- you know, I sent him a picture of me in business class, and maybe to Phil and a couple other people. We don't wanna see it on social media, okay? No one wants it. So I knew not to post it, but I was happy up there. But I'm sitting by this woman. She's complaining. She starts complaining. So because she, she looks over to me, uh, you get your own little... I don't know, never been up there. You get your own little booth up there, you know what I'm saying? She's looking over at me and starts talking to me, and I didn't really wanna have a conversation, but nonetheless.

(laughs) She said, "Oh, I was in... I, you know, I was gonna go to Geneva, and then I got messed up in Geneva, and now I'm not gonna make it. I gotta New- New Zealand," and I'm... She's looking for me to commiserate with her. "This is horrible and the system's down." And I said, "Ah, it's..." And I'm, "Yeah, I'm so sorry." I'm, I'm being empathetic with her and the whole thing and, you know. Uh, and then, then they, they, they deplaned us, right?

And I was like, "That's a bummer." So, uh, let me just finish up this story. We get back on the plane, she's complaining again. It was an 11-hour flight. I never heard the woman say anything that wasn't negative. We finally get to baggage claim. I'm getting my baggage, right? She's complaining again over and... I'm, and, and, and, at one point somebody walks up and they tried to put something in, in the bag ahead of her, and she looks at him and she goes, "You're not allowed to put a bag here. You're not from this class." And I was like, "Whoa!

What just happened?" You know? (laughs) And I just thought, 'cause I was getting my sermon ready, and I just thought, "It is so easy to be miserable." Yeah. Miserable. And I thought, "You didn't make me miserable, because I'm in free business class!" (laughs) "You do whatever you want. Yes, I will have the steak." (laughs) Never been there. Never been there, it's beautiful. Beautiful and great. Love it. That's how the other, that's how the other half live.

But I thought to myself, "Wow. You know who's the most miserable person on this flight? You." And I, I thought to myself, I did, I did think about you gu- about a bunch of things that a bunch of you guys have been going through.And I just want to, I literally just wanted to say, hey, I got a person who's going through this. I got a person who's going through this. I got a person who's going through that. You have zero problems. You have zero problems that I know of. Now, maybe you have some deep problem, but her only problem was somebody was putting a bag above her that was p- supposedly from economy.

Here's what I want to challenge you to do. One, identify if you're that person. Be honest with yourself. Am I constantly just negative? Or am I a person who does todah? Who speaks it out, who says it out. I wanna tell you, this, you have an opportunity this Thanksgiving to change the things around in your life and begin to be a person of thanksgiving. That the practical takeaway is that you will begin to give expression, words with your mouth, deeds, that you will give written notes to begin to thank not only God, but the people around you, because people are spending all kinds of money to make themselves look good on the outside, and you wanna know the most popular people, and no one thinks about this, are the people who are joyful, happy, give thanks, and you want them to be, you know, you'd go on a road trip with that person.

And no one seems to work on that. We just work on all this other stuff. Thanksgiving is a supernatural tool that'll change your life. That's the end of my sermon. Let's stand, if you would. (applause) Can I have the prayer team come forward? I thank you all for dealing with our mood service today. It's actually darker during our worship services. If you need prayer, we want to pray for you, want to anoint you with oil.

If you have not made a decision to follow Jesus, you can know Jesus and have eternal salvation. Come forward. This prayer team will pray for you to have eternal salvation. You can be baptized like Nick. You can see your life change. Jesus ain't gonna make your life perfect, but I'll tell you what, he can make it a lot better. So we're going to sing. If you extend your hands right now, I'm gonna bless you. I want to bless you today, and then we're gonna leave the front open.

I went long, oh my goodness. Lord, we bless your people. I'm so thankful, God. I'm so thankful for this church. I'm so thankful for these people. I'm so thankful for my mom. I'm so thankful for the dad that I had. I'm so thankful for my wife. I'm so thankful. You begin to thank God yourself right now. I'm so thankful that you saved me. Just begin to thank him. Let an offering of praise raise up out of your voice. Just be thankful right now, God. I am so thankful, God, for my daughters.

I'm so thankful for my son-in-law. So thankful for my friends, like Devon, and that are in this church, that care, that support us and me and care. So thankful, God, for the health that I have and how you have moved in power. So thankful, God. Let's just enter his courts with thanksgiving and praise. (applause) This Thanksgiving, God, we give you thanks. God, we give you thanks, God. We give you an offering of thanks, Lord. We bless you, Jesus. God, and for those, Jesus, it's not a bumper sticker, God.

For those that are really struggling, Lord God, they just need that empowerment, God, to say thank you in a time where n- where everything's bleak. God, touch them, reach them, God. I don't wanna, in any way, say anything that would heap anything upon them other than you have a father who loves you, knows you, and wants to be with you. So I bless you now on this Thanksgiving. I pray that you would have wisdom in your conversations around the dinner table. I pray there to be no division at your dinner table. I pray that any of the things that divide this country or the church in any way would be banished from your lips during the time of Thanksgiving.

We are only gonna praise you and give thanksgiving this Thursday, and beforehand, God. So we bless you now in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you guys. Have a great Sunday.