Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Wendy Speake: Rejoicing In God’s Goodness During Life’s Hard Seasons

Transcript

Wendy Speake: Rejoicing In God’s Goodness During Life’s Hard Seasons · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:03
  Welcome to Worldview Matters.
• 0:05
  Discussing controversial issues.
• 0:07
  Discerning current events.
• 0:10
  Defending biblical Christianity.
• 0:13
  No topic.
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  Off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Fiorazzo.
• 0:20
  Friends and family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
• 0:23
  We appreciate your prayers very much and sharing the podcast.
• 0:28
  It's amazing.
• 0:29
  It's still amazing to me that there are more people who download the audio than watch or share the video.
• 0:34
  So that's just, I'm a video guy.
• 0:36
  I'm a visual person.
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  But a lot of people listen when they're doing other things.
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  This is a very important topic because it's something that I sometimes struggle with.
• 0:44
  And that is just giving thanks.
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  You're going, wait a minute, you're not grateful?
• 0:47
  No, I didn't say that.
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  But,
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  During hard times in life, it can be harder to give thanks, but we're going to talk about that with today's guest.
• 0:54
  It's a good time to do this.
• 0:56
  It's at the end of October.
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  Thanksgiving is a month away, so I think this is a perfect time to talk about a brand new book.
• 1:03
  It's called A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.
• 1:08
  30 Days of Rejoicing in God's Goodness.
• 1:12
  We're bringing in author Wendy Speak, and her previous books, we'll talk maybe just briefly on the 40-day sugar fast or the 40-day social media fast.
• 1:25
  I mean, these are tough things for people in this day and age.
• 1:28
  But Wendy, thank you for your time.
• 1:29
  Good to see you.
• 1:30
  Thanks for the book.
• 1:31
  Thank you.
• 1:32
  I know you oftentimes have conversations about controversial issues.
• 1:37
  And that's, you know, that's your worldview.
• 1:39
  And so, yes, the sugar fast is a controversial conversation.
• 1:43
  Social media fast.
• 1:45
  Yes.
• 1:45
  And then this time, this latest book is not in the title, but it really is an ask fast.
• 1:50
  Are we willing to set down?
• 1:52
  Our petitions for a season of just awakening and renewing our praise to God, who's worthy of it, whether he does what we're asking him for or not.
• 2:02
  Well, you write about some things that are hard for people to give up.
• 2:06
  I mean, sugar, social media, asking, asking, asking God, instead of just praising Him for who He is.
• 2:14
  We get in, you know, even Christians, we get into some bad habits.
• 2:17
  So you can either talk about that right now, or maybe go back and talk about some of the hard seasons or season in your life that kind of caused you to write this book.
• 2:27
  Tell us about that.
• 2:28
  Sure, I will, but you just gave me the option of what I wanted to talk about.
• 2:33
  I just want to say that...
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  God has asked us to ask of him.
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  So we're not saying that it's wrong.
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  Actually, it's biblical.
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  He says you don't have sometimes because you don't ask.
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  And then he tells us to ask and keep on asking, to knock and keep on knocking, to seek and keep on seeking.
• 2:53
  And yet I have found that sometimes I need to press pause because my petitions are more like pleading, begging prayers.
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  rather than a resting and a trusting that he is good, he is God, he is seeing it and reigning it all over it all.
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  And he has the power and authority to do something about it.
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  And we can rest in that and praise him
• 3:20
  with our actual concerns.
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  So we're still bringing him our concerns, but we're doing it more in the posture of, God, you know, you see, you care, you have the power and authority to do something about it.
• 3:32
  And I eagerly anticipate just boasting in you.
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  So this is a very important topic, as I said, because a lot of people, Christians, this is our Christian audience.
• 3:43
  A lot of people struggle, even Christians.
• 3:45
  Oh, my goodness.
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  We have hard times.
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  Before we got on the podcast, Wendy, I was sharing with you how hard it is, I think, for a lot of people.
• 3:53
  And I think more people than what we realize, going through a trial or really struggling with something when they go to church on Sunday mornings.
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  But yet you've got 60 seconds or 90 seconds when you're greeting people.
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  you can't open up and share and get into this.
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  So they keep it inside.
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  They think they have to put up a facade.
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  Talk to us a little bit about that.
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  And then I want to hear your story from the hard seasons in your life.
• 4:16
  Yeah, I know.
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  We should have hit record right away when we got on the call together because our pre-show was already deeply meaningful.
• 4:24
  And you've got yours and I've had mine.
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  And we do say, you know, God is good all the time.
• 4:31
  True.
• 4:31
  All the time.
• 4:32
  Brother, sister, God is good.
• 4:34
  Yeah.
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  And it's true.
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  And still, you know, we're told that we don't grieve like a people without hope, but we're not told that we do not grieve.
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  And so it's trying to make space for how do we hold grief in one hand and gratitude in the other?
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  Is that even possible?
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  And you're right.
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  60 seconds, those 90 seconds, it just doesn't give us the scope to be authentic and real and then transition immediately into the next song.
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  So I was in a season...
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  To put it mildly, I didn't know I was going to survive it.
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  My heartache was so profound.
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  It didn't just feel like my heart was broken.
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  It felt like my life, my family, and even my mind was fractured.
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  I could not.
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  I could not string sentences together.
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  I was so torn apart.
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  And I remember going to my therapist saying, can you send me somewhere?
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  Like, is there somewhere I can go and they'll help heal me?
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  My nervous system was dysregulated.
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  I was crying all the time.
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  I just needed help.
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  And she said, maybe, maybe we can do that.
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  But let's start with this.
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  Let's start with you just going somewhere to a group of people who can just love you.
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  Just love you.
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  You can be real with them.
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  You can share what you're going through and they can just surround you with love.
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  So I boarded a plane to go from Texas to San Diego and,
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  And as I said, I was deeply hurting at the time.
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  And I got to my seat, I laid my head against the window and I fell asleep before the plane was even off the ground.
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  And I woke up with only about 20 minutes left of the flight.
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  And I looked next to me and this woman, I found out her name was Cheryl.
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  She was sitting there and she engaged me in conversation and asked me where I was going, what I was doing, what do I do for a living?
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  And I said, well, I'm an author.
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  but I'm not planning on writing on this trip.
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  And she said, as many people do, oh, tell me what you wrote.
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  And I started as I do with the four days sugar fast because someone always has a comment about that type.
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  And when I said that, she said, oh, I have a fasting story.
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  And she went into telling me, to tell me about a time when she felt God...
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  calling her to an ask fast.
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  And I said, fast.
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  And she said, yes, setting down everything I come to him, petitioning him for and just pressing pause on that and praising him for being good and for being God, for being my good God, regardless of what he does in my life.
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  And that was such a pivot for me.
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  And I remember getting off the plane that day and saying, if I were to start in a...
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  in the Bible with memorizing a passage of praise, where would you encourage me to start?
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  And she said, Psalm 100.
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  That's what I did.
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  I got to where I was going, my friend's house.
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  I opened up a brand new journal and I started with Psalm 100.
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  And this book begins with the same psalm, that invitation to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, to give thanksgiving continually, to offer it as a sacrifice.
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  And that's really what this book is.
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  It's a sacrifice.
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  Sometimes it's an overflow of the heart.
• 8:01
  Hmm.
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  Sometimes it is a costly sacrifice where we say, I don't have enough that I'm thankful for to thank you.
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  I don't have the peace and the calm and the health and the wholeness to praise you for being holy.
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  And yet God says, bring me what you do have.
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  I'll take it.
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  Bring it as a sacrifice.
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  I want to add a couple.
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  First of all, thank you for sharing that.
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  I know that must have been a difficult season for you, and a lot of people in our audience can relate, and maybe they're there now going through that.
• 8:34
  But I'm thinking of 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything.
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  Give thanks.
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  In everything.
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  Give thanks.
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  This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
• 8:51
  And I was thinking I was... That's crazy.
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  Like, is it this is God's will for you that you're going through that?
• 8:58
  Or is it this is God's will for you that you praise him through it?
• 9:03
  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  Good question.
• 9:05
  When I was preparing for this interview, and I just love that we're talking about this because it's hard.
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  It's hard to, as James writes, consider it all joy when you're going through various trials.
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  It is hard, but it's biblical.
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  Why?
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  Because we get the focus off of us, and we look at God.
• 9:22
  I thought about that because I saw a football player after they won a game say, oh, God is good.
• 9:26
  And I'm thinking, okay, if you lost the game, sir, God is good.
• 9:30
  Okay.
• 9:31
  If we're celebrating a birthday, we get to a birthday and go, oh, happy birthday, God is good.
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  But if you get to next year and one of your loved ones didn't make it another year, God is still good.
• 9:42
  So it's that perspective of not what we're going through in this short life that's a vapor.
• 9:47
  And I know I'm preaching to the choir, Wendy, but God is good no matter what all the time.
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  I know it's a phrase and some people laugh at it, but even if we don't get that answered prayer the way we want it,
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  think about who God is.
• 10:02
  And as you encourage people to think about his character and, and what he's already done through Christ, through Christ and the sacrifice of Christ, is it too much to offer a sacrifice of praise for what Christ gave us?
• 10:15
  Go ahead.
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  I'll let you.
• 10:16
  David, you're talking about my very favorite theme of this book.
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  And one of the main verses, probably the main verse is,
• 10:25
  Hebrews 13, 15, that tells us, But those first two words, through Jesus, we do not have access to thank God for anything.
• 10:49
  if it weren't for Jesus bringing us back to a right relationship with the Father.
• 10:54
  And so I tell myself, Wendy, if all you have is Jesus, then you have the ability to walk right up and thank the Father for the Son.
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  If all you have is Jesus, you have more than enough to thank him for.
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  Amen.
• 11:12
  I'll just let people think about that.
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  If all we have is Jesus, that's enough.
• 11:17
  I didn't give your website.
• 11:18
  I can't believe this.
• 11:19
  It's wendyspeake.com.
• 11:22
  Wendy, S-P-E-A-K-E dot com.
• 11:27
  You get info on her, her ministry, all of her books.
• 11:30
  And before we move on, I don't want to run out of time.
• 11:32
  We're already halfway through, Wendy.
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  Tell...
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  our audience, listeners and viewers about what you're doing in November so people can sign up for that and go through that with you.
• 11:43
  Please tell us about that and how people can sign up.
• 11:45
  Yes.
• 11:46
  And I hope that you will.
• 11:47
  So for the whole month of November, because remember, we've been called to continually offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
• 11:54
  And so we don't want to just wait for Thanksgiving day to give God our thanks.
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  We're going to, for the entire month of November, for 30 days, we are going to go through this book together in a private Facebook group.
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  Now you don't have to be on Facebook to do it.
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  I'll be sending out weekly emails and the book has all of your daily readings.
• 12:14
  There are 30 short chapters.
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  So if you go to the website, wendyspeak.com and then do forward slash praise,
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  you'll be able to sign up for that online event.
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  And there's also a free download of a 30-day journal that can accompany us deeper into God's word.
• 12:34
  And we're just gonna spend time learning about his praiseworthy nature, his character traits, why he is praiseworthy entirely because of who he is, not what he does for us.
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  And the more time we spend just meditating on that,
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  the more naturally praise starts pouring out of us.
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  But if it doesn't, if all 30 days, it is a sacrificial crawling on your knees, laying down before him of praise, what you do have.
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  What a gift that is.
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  I'm reminded, David, of the widow in the temple courts.
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  who gave her might, right?
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  Remember her two copper coins.
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  And Jesus points her out to his disciples who's sitting with him and says, she's giving all she has.
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  These other guys, they're putting in out of the overflow of their abundance, but she's putting in her last two copper coins.
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  So if all month you are just bringing all you have, a pauper of praise, you know, bereft and bankrupt where
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  Thanksgiving is Jesus looks at that offering and says, I'll take that.
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  I'll honor that.
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  I know what to do with that.
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  And so you don't have to be in a broken place to join us.
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  I'm just saying it is always a sacrificial offering.
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  It's just sometimes it feels more sacrificial than others.
• 14:03
  Yes, amen.
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  And the subtitle of the book, 30 Days of Rejoicing in God's Goodness.
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  So it's a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
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  It's a journey to rejoice in God's goodness, even in life's hardest seasons.
• 14:19
  And I want to allow you to share a little bit more about the sacrifice part of it, because when we praise God, when we don't feel like it, it does help us
• 14:33
  So talk to us about how that is a sacrifice.
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  We're honoring God and we're just, you know, David had to do that.
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  Why so downcast?
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  Oh, my soul.
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  Put your hope in God.
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  He's speaking to his own soul, right?
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  Go ahead and share a little bit more about that sacrifice.
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  Those two Psalms that go back to back, it's like one big song, and it's verse after verse after verse of him reminding himself the same thing.
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  Oh, again, why are you downcast?
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  Oh, my soul, put your hope in God.
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  And it feels so muscular.
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  And I think of Thanksgiving, especially during those seasons where we're not thankful and praising God when we're struggling in persevering in life, let alone persevering in praise.
• 15:17
  A lot like those Psalms of David is again and again, I have to practice this like a spiritual discipline.
• 15:26
  Like I'm lifting weights as I come to him and again laying down my praise or lifting up my praise.
• 15:34
  You know, the word Thanksgiving in the Hebrew is todah.
• 15:40
  And it means to give thanks.
• 15:43
  And it's a physical expression of giving thanks.
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  And it's rooted in a word that is yada, which is to extend one's hands.
• 15:54
  So it really is this physical thing we have to practice like a discipline.
• 16:00
  And physically, it's like we're lifting weights and getting stronger at our ability to come to him, thank him, praise him because of who he is, not just what he does.
• 16:10
  Amen.
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  So I want you to now talk to us a little bit about why it's important for believers in Christ to both feel okay about lament and praise.
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  Lament is more like on the grieving side of things.
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  Praise is more on the giving thanks and praising God.
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  Why is it important to have a balance in both?
• 16:32
  First of all, I just want to say that oftentimes we bypass the reality of our hard circumstances, our hard feelings, and talking about them, like we were speaking of at the start, because it doesn't feel very Christian, good or godly.
• 16:48
  We don't want to complain and grumble.
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  We're told not to.
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  However...
• 16:53
  With Jesus as our example, he did not bypass hard feelings, hard emotions, hard responses, you know, difficult, deep feeling responses to difficult things.
• 17:05
  And I'm reminded of when we're told, you know, the famous verse that every child likes to memorize because it's only two words.
• 17:12
  Shortest verse in the Bible is Jesus wept.
• 17:16
  And I've been so challenged as I think about where did he weep?
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  He wept.
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  He wept.
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  at the tomb of Lazarus right before he was about to raise him from the dead.
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  If anyone had a reason to bypass his hard moment, it's the one who knew what he was about to do.
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  He was about to overcome that hard moment, that death entirely.
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  But he didn't.
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  Why didn't he?
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  He sat there.
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  He entered into deep.
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  deep grief, but not as the world grieves, because we have the hope of heaven.
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  We have the hope of an eternity with him, but it didn't stop him from living in the present sadness of the loss and the pain and the concern for those around him.
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  And so often we're thinking, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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  God is good all the time.
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  All the time.
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  God is good.
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  Yes.
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  And this is really difficult and we can be in it with him.
• 18:14
  And so there's a, there's a quote by, um,
• 18:18
  Oh, Mark Vrogop in Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy.
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  It says to cry is human, to lament is Christian.
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  So lamenting is a crying, a crying out to the Lord.
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  And I love it because it's not pretty.
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  And so often I love the term.
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  I was ugly crying.
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  Like that's the scene I was in.
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  Like, it's not pretty.
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  There is snot.
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  There's guts.
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  You know, it's, oh, it's ugly.
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  It's on your shirt.
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  It's on your face and you can't hide it.
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  That's, that's where we start with a lament, but it is a pathway to praise.
• 18:55
  So it starts with pain.
• 18:56
  And it gets us to a place of praise where we start with, it's four points, really, who are we addressing?
• 19:02
  Oh God, so we have examples of these Psalms of Lament throughout the Bible.
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  Psalm 13 is a famous one.
• 19:10
  It starts out addressing God, God, and then it goes straight into the problem we're having.
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  Really, it feels like a shaking of the fist to heaven.
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  Why are you doing this?
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  Where are you?
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  Why aren't you answering my prayers?
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  Why are you allowing all these evil men to come against me?
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  Why are you allowing all these evil men to come against me?
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  What I would like you to do, so this is the third point, is I want you to do this for me.
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  But the fourth point is where we arrive at a place of praise, even if he doesn't.
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  We say, but yet, still, all my hope is in you.
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  All my trust is in you.
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  You are good.
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  You see me.
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  You know me.
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  You'll never leave me.
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  You'll never forsake me.
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  I mean, I'm using words that are scriptural words, but it's not any one psalm.
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  And so that's what it is for us to lament.
• 19:58
  That's what the whole book of Lamentations is.
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  Here's the problem.
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  I'm addressing God.
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  I'm asking you to do this.
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  But in the end, whether you do it for me or not, I love you.
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  I trust you.
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  My eyes are on you.
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  My hope is in you.
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  So to cry, that's human.
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  To lament is Christian.
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  Amen.
• 20:17
  I think of those verses, great is his faithfulness, his mercies are new every morning.
• 20:22
  I think that's in the third chapter.
• 20:24
  So one of the themes in the book seems to be you're saying it's okay for Christians to feel or allow themselves to either feel or express sadness, disappointment, grief.
• 20:38
  God made us with these emotions.
• 20:40
  Now, I think your point also is to not stay there.
• 20:44
  But to focus, change our focus upward in those times, right?
• 20:51
  Yeah, absolutely.
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  And God does.
• 20:54
  He models for us a very full spectrum of emotions.
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  So he's identifying with us, but we want to circumnavigate his experience on earth.
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  No, he doesn't say you shouldn't feel.
• 21:09
  He invites us feel with me.
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  He says, come to me when you're weary and heavy laden.
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  I'll give you rest.
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  He doesn't say, hey, knock this off.
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  He says, enter into this with me.
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  Invite me in.
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  Hey, come away with me to a secret place, a quiet place.
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  place.
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  Let's rest together.
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  And then he says in Philippians 4, remember in your anxiety, what is true and right and noble.
• 21:38
  Don't deny it, but from that very real life circumstances with those very real emotions, rejoice because we know what rejoicing is doing.
• 21:48
  Again, this is back to James.
• 21:50
  We know that we're being brought into a place of maturity and completeness as we persevere, not persevere away from the pain, but persevere through it with Christ.
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  What a gentle, kind, abiding, hands-on experience we have with a very hands-on God.
• 22:12
  Amen.
• 22:12
  Amen.
• 22:13
  He cares about everything, everything that we go through.
• 22:15
  I do want to mention, friends, you can connect with Wendy on social media.
• 22:20
  She's on Facebook, and she's got a YouTube channel.
• 22:23
  But go to WendySpeak.com.
• 22:24
  Her book is on Amazon, all of her books.
• 22:27
  Did anything surprise you, Wendy, as you studied Scripture and wrote about praise, thanksgiving, worship, and the goodness of God?
• 22:34
  Did anything jump out at you?
• 22:36
  Just tell us a little bit about that.
• 22:38
  Yeah, I think I've got three quick things.
• 22:42
  First, I've just been surprised how much I've enjoyed interviews and speaking engagements lately because the joy of actually expressing these things is,
• 22:53
  with others has lit me up.
• 22:57
  I mean, I knew it already was doing a work on my inside, but to give voice to it, not just quietly in my own room, writing it down, but to actually express the praiseworthiness of God with others has filled me with so much joy.
• 23:13
  The second thing would be, I focused on the names of God because the names of God
• 23:18
  reveal the nature of God.
• 23:20
  So El Elyon, God most high.
• 23:23
  I mean, to just think about the name, to think about Psalm 113, where we know he reigns, he looks down upon the heavens.
• 23:32
  So he is this big, vast creator God overall.
• 23:37
  And yet he looks down upon the earth and he sees the barren woman and he sees the orphan and he cares about them and extends care to them.
• 23:45
  the vastness of God.
• 23:47
  So the vastness of Yahweh, who always was.
• 23:49
  I mean, my mind has been blown with the nature of God expressed through the names of God.
• 23:56
  And in the end, the last thing that I would say surprised me is how beautiful Jesus became to me.
• 24:02
  I've always heard that term and I'm like, beautiful.
• 24:05
  We're told he was a man that didn't have, you know, characteristics that we would be drawn to him.
• 24:11
  Yeah.
• 24:12
  Like, what does that mean?
• 24:13
  And I've come to see that his characteristics are like facial features.
• 24:21
  Grace and compassion and mercy, kindness, long-suffering, faithfulness.
• 24:29
  He's just become so beautiful to me.
• 24:32
  And it's because I was clinging to him in the midst of this very, very difficult season.
• 24:38
  And that same beautiful savior is available to each and every one of us very personally at the same time throughout every generation.
• 24:47
  It's amazing.
• 24:48
  Amen.
• 24:49
  Amen.
• 24:49
  I mean, you look to God and you study his attributes and character as you went through to work on this book.
• 24:55
  And what did I just read?
• 24:57
  I just read something about right living flows from right worship.
• 25:05
  And so we can worship God even when we're not feeling like it.
• 25:09
  And we'll see some fruit of that in our lives, no matter what season you're in.
• 25:14
  I just do want to quote a little bit from Psalm 95 and let you wrap up with your final thoughts, Wendy.
• 25:20
  Because this is an important book, A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.
• 25:25
  Psalm 95, come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
• 25:28
  Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
• 25:34
  Thanksgiving.
• 25:35
  Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms, for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth.
• 25:47
  And it goes on.
• 25:48
  Wendy, about a minute and a half, just encourage our audience and remind them why this is important.
• 25:54
  I love that Psalm.
• 25:55
  I would say that if the psalmist says,
• 25:59
  were a worship leader today, he would do a mashup in the sanctuary of Psalm 95 and Psalm 100.
• 26:05
  There's a lot of overlap, right?
• 26:07
  In the actual words that are being sung there.
• 26:10
  And I love that.
• 26:11
  Also, I have that verse memorized because my youngest child memorized it when he had a lispy little voice.
• 26:19
  He was probably first grade.
• 26:21
  And even as I hear it, I hear it with his voice and the inflections.
• 26:27
  And so I would encourage you,
• 26:29
  If praising is difficult and you can't find your own words, hide some of God's word in your heart.
• 26:36
  to help you give voice to it.
• 26:37
  Start with Psalm 100, like my plane companion, Cheryl had me start with, or 95.
• 26:47
  Send me a message, I'll send you a video of Asher doing this Psalm where he said, for the Lord is a great God, a great King of all gods.
• 26:57
  And so let's hide it in our hearts.
• 26:59
  Let's remember what is true and right and noble and praiseworthy.
• 27:03
  and think about these things, not to bypass the hard reality, but to dwell on what is more true than our present circumstances.
• 27:12
  Amen.
• 27:12
  Let us worship and bow down, kneel before the Lord our God, our maker.
• 27:16
  Wendy Speak, the book, Friends, Amazon.
• 27:18
  Check out our website, wendyspeak.com.
• 27:22
  It was great having you on.
• 27:23
  Congrats on the book, so important.
• 27:25
  And I'll give you an early Happy Thanksgiving season wish, and appreciate your time today.
• 27:32
  Thank you.
• 27:34
  God bless you, friends.
• 27:35
  And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
• 27:38
  We'll see you next time.