Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / 26 Things To Be Grateful For- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: God, you are good. You are my daddy. You are
- 0:06Speaker 1: in charge. Your kingdom come. I need help. Heal me.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Encourage me.
- 0:13Speaker 1: Lead me.
- 0:15Speaker 3: Pardon me. So do they.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Those I love. Those I don't. This hurting world, thank you. Well,
- 0:32Speaker 1: in just a moment, we'll turn our attention to the
- 0:34Speaker 1: greatest word of prayer, and that is the word thank you.
- 0:40Speaker 1: But before we talk about giving thanks to God, could
- 0:43Speaker 1: I take just a moment and thank you? This is
- 0:47Speaker 1: the final message in our series on prayer that we
- 0:50Speaker 1: began earlier in the year. Randy has lined up a
- 0:54Speaker 1: great series for the summer. You'll be hearing more about that.
- 0:58Speaker 1: It's going to be a phenomenal way for us to
- 1:00Speaker 1: spend our weekends during the summer. He's also putting together
- 1:03Speaker 1: a strong series of messages on the family that we
- 1:07Speaker 1: will inaugurate at the AT & T Center on August
- 1:11Speaker 1: the 11th when all of our campuses are together. And
- 1:14Speaker 1: now it's my turn to turn my attention to writing
- 1:18Speaker 1: and speaking and lots and lots of travel. speaking in
- 1:21Speaker 1: churches all over the country. But before we put a
- 1:25Speaker 1: wrap on this series and before I head off to
- 1:27Speaker 1: that particular chapter of the year, I want to just
- 1:30Speaker 1: say thank you to you. It is my highest privilege,
- 1:34Speaker 1: my highest privilege to serve as a preacher in this congregation.
- 1:39Speaker 1: I often tell people I would rather preach than breathe,
- 1:44Speaker 1: I think. It's a good thing God doesn't make me
- 1:46Speaker 1: choose between preaching and breathing. I might suffocate. I love,
- 1:50Speaker 1: I love the privilege. I love creating messages. I love
- 1:55Speaker 1: presenting messages. And whether I be somewhere around the world,
- 2:00Speaker 1: I'm always thinking of the Oak Hills Church. And I
- 2:02Speaker 1: love preaching here. I think this is the greatest church.
- 2:06Speaker 1: And you make preaching fun. You really do. If a
- 2:10Speaker 1: person can't preach at Oak Hills, they can't preach. Because
- 2:13Speaker 1: you just are so kind. And you're so generous. And
- 2:16Speaker 1: you make it just such a joy. And here as
- 2:18Speaker 1: I'm In my 25th year at the Oak Hills Church
- 2:21Speaker 1: and wrapping up another series, I just wanted to say
- 2:24Speaker 1: thank you. From Dean Lynn, from our family to you,
- 2:28Speaker 1: it's just an awesome, awesome privilege. And I've really enjoyed
- 2:32Speaker 1: this series on prayer. Our idea has been really simple,
- 2:35Speaker 1: and that is to take the great teachings of prayer
- 2:39Speaker 1: and the great prayers of the Bible and see if
- 2:41Speaker 1: we couldn't distill them down into a pocket-sized prayer, one
- 2:45Speaker 1: that we could remember, one that could serve as an
- 2:48Speaker 1: outline for for our own prayers. And the result was this.
- 2:52Speaker 1: And I invite you to say the prayer as it
- 2:53Speaker 1: appears on the screen. God, you are good. I need help.
- 2:59Speaker 1: So do they. Thank you. We begin by declaring the
- 3:03Speaker 1: goodness of God. We ask him to help us. We
- 3:07Speaker 1: pray for those we know who need help. But most
- 3:10Speaker 1: of all, we don't say amen before we say thank you.
- 3:15Speaker 1: What an important word today. thank you is you know
- 3:18Speaker 1: i'm thankful i'm thankful for andy andy's our dog a
- 3:25Speaker 1: dog that dean lynn rescued from a shelter he's was
- 3:28Speaker 1: as rangy as a coyote when we got him he's
- 3:32Speaker 1: chubby now and he jumps in the bed with us
- 3:34Speaker 1: every morning and when we come home he scampers around
- 3:38Speaker 1: like he won the lottery when he sees somebody showing
- 3:41Speaker 1: up i'm thankful for andy I'm thankful for bald spots.
- 3:49Speaker 1: I was standing in line at a convenience store the
- 3:51Speaker 1: other day and I looked up on the security monitor
- 3:54Speaker 1: and I thought, boy, that guy's, he's got a big
- 3:56Speaker 1: bald spot. And then I realized I was looking at me.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Spreading like a rain puddle. Might as well be thankful. Besides,
- 4:07Speaker 1: bald starts with B. And chocolate... Starts with C. So
- 4:15Speaker 1: I'm thankful for chocolate. Chocolate cake. Chocolate candy. Chocolate shakes.
- 4:23Speaker 1: Thankful for the rain. Do you hear the rain? Yeah.
- 4:27Speaker 1: And I'm thankful for all types of chocolate. I'm convinced
- 4:31Speaker 1: that Adam and Eve would have avoided the tree if
- 4:34Speaker 1: somebody had given them some chocolate. I'm thankful for dictionaries.
- 4:47Speaker 1: What would we do without dictionaries? Somebody has to define
- 4:50Speaker 1: the words. If D-O-G meant C-A-T to you and R-A-T
- 4:58Speaker 1: to me, we wouldn't know what to pet and what
- 5:00Speaker 1: to catch and what to chase. So I'm thankful for
- 5:04Speaker 1: dictionaries and I'm thankful for exercises like this one. It
- 5:10Speaker 1: was my wife's idea, Dean Lynn's idea, and that is
- 5:15Speaker 1: use the alphabet to make a list of your blessings
- 5:21Speaker 1: rather than catalog your burdens. itemize your benefits. So A
- 5:27Speaker 1: is Andy, B, bald spot, C, chocolate, D, dictionary. And
- 5:33Speaker 1: it dawns on me that my wife's name begins with
- 5:35Speaker 1: D as well. So next time I make this list,
- 5:40Speaker 1: Dean Lynn, Trump's dictionary, which is a lesson of the exercise.
- 5:48Speaker 1: A person never runs out of opportunities to say thanks.
- 5:54Speaker 1: What a great word. Thank you. Thank you. Just saying
- 5:59Speaker 1: the word lifts the spirit, doesn't it? To say thanks
- 6:04Speaker 1: is to celebrate a gift, anything. Bald spots, dictionaries, chocolate.
- 6:11Speaker 1: To say thanks is to cross the tracks from the
- 6:16Speaker 1: have-nots to the have-much. From the left out to the
- 6:20Speaker 1: pulled in. Thanks says, I'm not victimized. I'm not forgotten.
- 6:24Speaker 1: I'm not neglected. I'm not handicapped. I'm not overlooked. I'm
- 6:28Speaker 1: not impoverished. I am blessed. Thank you. In scripture, thanksgiving
- 6:37Speaker 1: is not a good idea. It's not a suggested strategy.
- 6:43Speaker 1: It's not a possible response. In scripture, Thanksgiving is a command.
- 6:53Speaker 1: Over 100 times, either by example or imperative, we are
- 6:58Speaker 1: told to be thankful. Over 100 times. If quantity implies gravity,
- 7:05Speaker 1: God takes Thanksgiving very seriously. Here's why. Ingratitude is the
- 7:12Speaker 1: original sin. Ingratitude is the original sin. Adam and Eve
- 7:21Speaker 1: had a million reasons to be grateful. Sunsets, fowls, waterfalls,
- 7:31Speaker 1: virgin territory. God found the Garden of Eden so delightful
- 7:38Speaker 1: that he would take strolls there during the cool of
- 7:41Speaker 1: the day. Adam and Eve found the Garden of Eden
- 7:43Speaker 1: so secure and safe that They worn our clothes, worn
- 7:47Speaker 1: our clothes, and they had nothing to hide and no
- 7:50Speaker 1: one from whom to hide. It was a safe. It
- 7:53Speaker 1: was a beautiful place. It was a perfect world. They
- 7:57Speaker 1: were one with God, one with creation, one with each other.
- 8:02Speaker 1: It was a wonderful place. If you press your ear
- 8:05Speaker 1: against the early pages of the book of Genesis, you
- 8:10Speaker 1: will hear Eden in concert. But then came the snake.
- 8:16Speaker 1: Then came Satan, slithered into the garden, and he raised
- 8:21Speaker 1: a question, not about all the trees that Adam and
- 8:25Speaker 1: Eve could enjoy, but about the one tree, the singular
- 8:30Speaker 1: tree they could not touch. Eat of this tree, he said,
- 8:39Speaker 1: and you will be like God. And just like that,
- 8:45Speaker 1: Eden was not enough. It was enough, mind you. It
- 8:50Speaker 1: was enough. Ecological, harmony, relational purity, spiritual peace. Adam and
- 9:01Speaker 1: Eve had all they would ever need. God had told them,
- 9:06Speaker 1: I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth.
- 9:10Speaker 1: And look at this. All the fruit trees... for your
- 9:15Speaker 1: food how many fruit trees did they have from which
- 9:18Speaker 1: they could eat all of them all of them they
- 9:24Speaker 1: had their own produce section but there could be more
- 9:30Speaker 1: the devil said there could be more and with that
- 9:34Speaker 1: thought satan introduced a germ into the pure garden the
- 9:42Speaker 1: germ of ingratitude And Eve and Adam felt the first
- 9:48Speaker 1: ever flush of discontent. Eden wasn't enough. God wasn't enough.
- 9:57Speaker 1: She was missing out. God was holding out. And so
- 10:01Speaker 1: rather than ponder all the fruit they had. They focused
- 10:05Speaker 1: on the one fruit. God forbade. And in gratitude moved in.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Like a bully on the block. And we can only
- 10:16Speaker 1: wonder what if gratitude had won the day. What if
- 10:21Speaker 1: Adam and Eve had said, you silly snake. Look at
- 10:28Speaker 1: the orchards we have. Look at the groves we have.
- 10:32Speaker 1: Let me show you our own personal watermelon patch. You
- 10:37Speaker 1: want us to focus on the one fruit we cannot touch?
- 10:40Speaker 1: Who cares? We've got more than we could ever enjoy.
- 10:48Speaker 1: We can only wonder, had they chosen gratitude, would their
- 10:52Speaker 1: world have been different? We can only wonder, were you
- 10:58Speaker 1: to make gratitude your default emotion, would your world be different? Oh,
- 11:08Speaker 1: the hissing we hear. Don't you want more? More? More?
- 11:18Speaker 1: More gigabytes. More horsepower. More space. More leg room. More retirement.
- 11:31Speaker 1: More testosterone. Don't you want more? It's poisonous. And God's
- 11:41Speaker 1: antidote for the toxin of more is a spirit of gratitude.
- 11:47Speaker 1: And rather than ponder on the tree, ponder the tree
- 11:51Speaker 1: you lack. Focus on the Garden of Eden that you have. Gratitude.
- 11:58Speaker 1: It's a daily dialysis of sorts. It flushes out the self-pity. So,
- 12:08Speaker 1: the idea is simple. You want to strengthen your gratitude muscle?
- 12:13Speaker 1: Declare a war on dourness and sourness. With an alphabetical
- 12:19Speaker 1: appreciation delineation. So my list continues. I'm thankful for flights.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Even the crowded ones. Even the long security lines. At
- 12:31Speaker 1: least I don't have to walk, right? I'm grateful. I'm
- 12:35Speaker 1: grateful for golf. I'm grateful that I play so poorly
- 12:39Speaker 1: that other people want to play with me because they
- 12:41Speaker 1: look good. I'm grateful for heaven. I honestly do not
- 12:48Speaker 1: know what I would say at funerals if it were
- 12:51Speaker 1: not for heaven. But you know the presence of heaven
- 12:55Speaker 1: makes even a graveside service a place of gratitude. Scripture
- 13:05Speaker 1: says in everything give thanks. In everything. In traffic give thanks.
- 13:14Speaker 1: In tough times give thanks. In hospital rooms, give thanks.
- 13:19Speaker 1: In debt, give thanks. Even in interruptions, give thanks. Jesus did.
- 13:29Speaker 1: He planned a retreat with his disciples. 5,000 plus people
- 13:34Speaker 1: followed him. So he took them out to lunch. He
- 13:39Speaker 1: told the people to sit down on the grass and
- 13:41Speaker 1: he took the five loaves and the two fish and
- 13:43Speaker 1: looking into heaven, what did he do? He thanked God
- 13:49Speaker 1: for the food. Jesus robustly thankful. Perpetually thankful. Thanking God
- 13:55Speaker 1: for the children who wanted to be blessed. Thanking God
- 13:58Speaker 1: for the blind who wanted to be healed. Thanking God
- 14:01Speaker 1: for Mary who came and poured perfume over his feet.
- 14:05Speaker 1: He was always thankful. So thank you Jesus for the
- 14:11Speaker 1: example of gratitude. Thank you King Jesus, for taking every
- 14:19Speaker 1: event and making it work out for your ultimate good
- 14:25Speaker 1: and your ultimate glory. Thank you, Lord, for love. I've
- 14:31Speaker 1: noticed that since I've tried to have a better attitude
- 14:34Speaker 1: about gratitude, I've spotted love in places I never spotted
- 14:39Speaker 1: it before. In an appliance store, an elderly couple looking
- 14:43Speaker 1: for a stove were holding hands, weathered and leathered hands. Love.
- 14:50Speaker 1: Love in the front yard of our neighborhood when I
- 14:52Speaker 1: saw a dad tossing a baseball to an excited and
- 14:56Speaker 1: happy kid who apparently was breaking in a brand new
- 14:59Speaker 1: baseball glove. Love everywhere when you look for it. Miracles.
- 15:09Speaker 1: When you look for them, you find them. Rebecca Taylor
- 15:15Speaker 1: has found them. Rebecca Taylor, according to the doctor, scores
- 15:22Speaker 1: a 12 on a scale of pain that registers 1
- 15:29Speaker 1: to 10. She lives in pain every day. Pretty tough challenge,
- 15:39Speaker 1: but she's a pretty tough kid. She's only 10 years old.
- 15:43Speaker 1: She has fudge bruises. brown hair and eyes that sparkle
- 15:47Speaker 1: and a weatherproof smile and she has a book of miracles.
- 15:53Speaker 1: She showed it to me in the hospital room. I
- 15:56Speaker 1: thought she was asleep. I went into the room and
- 15:59Speaker 1: I looked at all the handmade posters on the hospital
- 16:02Speaker 1: room wall. A covey of stuffed animals on the couch.
- 16:08Speaker 1: Somebody had delivered her a cookie bouquet. I was taking
- 16:11Speaker 1: a serious look at it and But then she woke
- 16:16Speaker 1: up and she said, Mommy, can you show Max my
- 16:21Speaker 1: miracle book? It's a spiral notebook, edges weathered, adorned with
- 16:28Speaker 1: crayon flowers, stars, and a few clowns. And when you
- 16:33Speaker 1: open it, you begin to read the miracles written in
- 16:37Speaker 1: Rebecca's hand. Miracle. I slept all night last night. Miracle.
- 16:43Speaker 1: Daddy's Snuck a puppy into the hospital. Miracle. Mommy's going
- 16:50Speaker 1: to place a Christmas tree in the corner. She's back
- 16:55Speaker 1: in the hospital this weekend. And we need to pray
- 16:58Speaker 1: for her. And we need to be thankful for her.
- 17:03Speaker 1: While everybody else is concerned and confused. And while Rebecca
- 17:06Speaker 1: is certainly in pain. She has decided in all circumstances.
- 17:12Speaker 1: In the midst of it all. to be a model
- 17:17Speaker 1: of gratitude I had to admit I've never kept a
- 17:21Speaker 1: miracle book maybe you haven't either maybe we should if
- 17:28Speaker 1: Rebecca can find reasons to give thanks can't we so
- 17:33Speaker 1: the alphabet gratitude continues God thank you for naps the
- 17:39Speaker 1: miracle that happens on a couch on Saturday and Sunday
- 17:43Speaker 1: afternoons Thank you, God, for, oh, oh, it's beautiful. Oh,
- 17:50Speaker 1: a rainbow. Oh, that was good. Oh, you look nice.
- 17:56Speaker 1: All the O's. I've never thanked God for all the O's.
- 18:00Speaker 1: And there are so many. I thank God for pea pots.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Just those flat circles of moisture that we come across
- 18:12Speaker 1: in a land that's so prone to drought. Q. Lord,
- 18:18Speaker 1: what am I grateful for? How about this? Queens, New York.
- 18:21Speaker 1: I spent a day there a few months back. People
- 18:25Speaker 1: were so nice. They took me to a Korean restaurant. Lord,
- 18:28Speaker 1: I never stopped to say thank you for the wonderful
- 18:31Speaker 1: people of Queens, New York. And Lord, how long has
- 18:34Speaker 1: it been since I stopped to thank you for running water?
- 18:40Speaker 1: Water hydrants, water faucets, showers, bathtubs, water spigots, everywhere, everywhere.
- 18:48Speaker 1: And it's clean and it's healthy. Thank you, Lord. It
- 18:52Speaker 1: occurs to me if I thank God for running water,
- 18:55Speaker 1: I'm going to be thanking God all day long. And
- 18:58Speaker 1: nothing cures the grumps like gratitude. And nothing troubles God
- 19:06Speaker 1: like grumblers. I've read about grumblers in the Bible. The
- 19:12Speaker 1: Israelites just released from Egyptian captivity made an art form
- 19:18Speaker 1: out of belly aching. They began to speak against God
- 19:22Speaker 1: and Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt
- 19:24Speaker 1: to die here in the wilderness? And we hate this
- 19:27Speaker 1: horrible manna. You know, only a month earlier they were slaves.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Only 30 days earlier. They were making bricks that they
- 19:38Speaker 1: would use to build, with which they would build pyramids.
- 19:44Speaker 1: Still have the whip marks on their back. They still
- 19:46Speaker 1: have the calluses on their hands. But then all of
- 19:50Speaker 1: a sudden liberation came. You remember how the Red Sea opened.
- 19:54Speaker 1: How manna began to fall like silver dollars from the heavens.
- 20:00Speaker 1: And how did they respond? They grumbled. Take us back
- 20:05Speaker 1: to Egypt they said. And God responded. He responded by
- 20:12Speaker 1: sending snakes into their camp. Shades of the Garden of Eden. Snakes,
- 20:23Speaker 1: scaled vermin slithered through their tents. The symbolism is inescapable.
- 20:32Speaker 1: Ingratitude comes from the devil and ingratitude can kill you.
- 20:38Speaker 1: Many were bitten and died. And then the people came
- 20:41Speaker 1: to Moses and cried out, we have sinned by speaking
- 20:44Speaker 1: against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord
- 20:47Speaker 1: will take away the snakes. So Moses prayed for the people.
- 20:51Speaker 1: And then the Lord told him, make a replica of
- 20:53Speaker 1: a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All
- 20:59Speaker 1: who are bitten will live. If they simply look at it.
- 21:04Speaker 1: So Moses made a snake out of bronze and he
- 21:07Speaker 1: attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten
- 21:10Speaker 1: by a snake could look at the bronze snake and
- 21:13Speaker 1: be healed. God's cure for the ungrateful spirit is look
- 21:18Speaker 1: up at the work of God. Look up what he
- 21:20Speaker 1: has done. Look how he has taken the devil himself
- 21:23Speaker 1: and freeze-framed him. Turned him into bronze and put him
- 21:27Speaker 1: on a pole. A millennia and a half later, Jesus
- 21:31Speaker 1: remembered this object lesson. And Jesus said, as Moses lifted
- 21:36Speaker 1: up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
- 21:39Speaker 1: Son of Man be lifted up. God's cure for ingratitude
- 21:44Speaker 1: is look up at what Jesus has done. How Satan
- 21:49Speaker 1: is destroyed and how Christ is supreme. We Christians, like
- 21:53Speaker 1: the Hebrews, we can bellyache. We can groan. But Jesus
- 21:59Speaker 1: gives us the same command. Look up. Look at what
- 22:03Speaker 1: Jesus has done. Look up. Thank you, Lord, that you
- 22:07Speaker 1: have given us a savior. Thank you, Lord, for the
- 22:12Speaker 1: triumph over the grave. You have defeated death once and
- 22:17Speaker 1: for all. Thank you, dear Lord, for this universe that
- 22:21Speaker 1: is being reclaimed. And will someday be full of your
- 22:26Speaker 1: glory again. Thank you, Lord, for the ultimate victory that
- 22:30Speaker 1: comes to every single person. Church, God's plan for the
- 22:40Speaker 1: grumpy and sad and discouraged spirit is simply this. Thank you.
- 22:48Speaker 1: Thank you. His solution to any challenge is a grateful spirit.
- 22:53Speaker 1: The quickest way out of the valley of despair is
- 22:56Speaker 1: that narrow little trail called thank you. While everyone else grumbles,
- 23:04Speaker 1: you be the one who is grateful. Jack Ryan teaches
- 23:10Speaker 1: us this. I know pastors aren't supposed to have their favorites.
- 23:17Speaker 1: But Jack Ryan... You know what? You would more quickly
- 23:21Speaker 1: find a moose on the moon than you would find
- 23:25Speaker 1: Jack Ryan with a complaint. From the beginning of the
- 23:30Speaker 1: service to the very end, hands extended in worship from
- 23:34Speaker 1: the first song to the last verse. He not only
- 23:39Speaker 1: served as an elder of this church, he served as
- 23:42Speaker 1: an example to this church of the power of a
- 23:47Speaker 1: grateful spirit. When heart disease began taking his strength, he
- 23:51Speaker 1: was not able to be in the services. And Dean
- 23:54Speaker 1: Lund and I paid him a visit on a Sunday afternoon.
- 23:59Speaker 1: His energy was gone. His sleep was scarce. I pulled
- 24:04Speaker 1: a chair up next to his. Jack, are you not
- 24:08Speaker 1: doing well? And he looked at me and he said, oh,
- 24:12Speaker 1: I'm doing great. I said, they say you can't sleep.
- 24:16Speaker 1: He said, no, I don't sleep much, but I can pray.
- 24:20Speaker 1: I just talk to Jesus. I tell him I love him.
- 24:24Speaker 1: I tell him how good he is. I tell him thanks.
- 24:28Speaker 1: He said, these are good times for me. I'm just
- 24:32Speaker 1: talking to Jesus. Poor circulation took his color and disease
- 24:38Speaker 1: had sapped his vigor. His hands trembled and skin draped
- 24:41Speaker 1: like cloths from his bones. Yet you would have thought
- 24:44Speaker 1: he was a kid on Christmas Eve. And in a
- 24:48Speaker 1: sense he was. Because by the next morning he was
- 24:53Speaker 1: in the presence of Jesus. Who is the real victor
- 24:58Speaker 1: in life? Is he the one who has much? Or
- 25:06Speaker 1: is he not the one who has much gratitude? Is
- 25:11Speaker 1: he the one who collects things? Or is he not
- 25:15Speaker 1: the one who collects reasons to be thankful to God?
- 25:22Speaker 1: My friend Rick Ashley is a minister in Fort Worth.
- 25:25Speaker 1: He told me recently of a member of his congregation
- 25:28Speaker 1: who's battled muscular sclerosis for much of his adult life.
- 25:35Speaker 1: But he continues to serve people through mail, through letters,
- 25:39Speaker 1: through notes. Rick wrote him a note and said, how
- 25:43Speaker 1: can I pray for you? The man wrote him back
- 25:47Speaker 1: with a list of 18 things for which to be
- 25:50Speaker 1: grateful and four things for which to pray. Wheelchair bound.
- 25:59Speaker 1: And unless God intervenes, we'll never stand again. And yet
- 26:01Speaker 1: his list of things for which to be grateful far
- 26:04Speaker 1: outnumbers his requests. So who is the real victor in life?
- 26:11Speaker 1: He who lives and dies in gratitude. So, The list continues.
- 26:15Speaker 1: How about walks? With friends? With family? How about, I'm
- 26:24Speaker 1: thankful for x-rays. Xylophones. And God's extra grace, because there's
- 26:32Speaker 1: not very many words to start with x. Grateful for
- 26:39Speaker 1: yellowtail finches. And I'm grateful for zebras. And I'm grateful
- 26:47Speaker 1: for stories like the one that comes from the missionary
- 26:53Speaker 1: to Tobago. The story that Jack Hinton tells about leading
- 27:01Speaker 1: worship at a colony of people who had been struck
- 27:08Speaker 1: with leprosy. And when he asked the colony that had
- 27:15Speaker 1: gathered for worship, if they had any song requests, a
- 27:18Speaker 1: lady from behind him said, I have a request. He turned,
- 27:24Speaker 1: he saw what he described as the most hideous face
- 27:26Speaker 1: he had ever seen. No nose, no ears, no lips.
- 27:32Speaker 1: She raised a fingerless hand and said, could we please
- 27:38Speaker 1: sing Count Your Many Blessings? A friend of his heard
- 27:45Speaker 1: the story and said, Jack, you'll never sing that song again.
- 27:49Speaker 1: He said, oh, I'll sing it all the time, but
- 27:50Speaker 1: I'll just never sing it the same way. The ability
- 27:55Speaker 1: to find blessings and to live with a spirit of gratitude.
- 28:01Speaker 1: May God hear us and find within us that kind
- 28:06Speaker 1: of spirit. Say with me the prayer once again, shall we? God,
- 28:12Speaker 1: you are good. You're my daddy. You're in charge. Your
- 28:17Speaker 1: kingdom come. I need help. Heal me. Encourage me. Lead me.
- 28:25Speaker 1: Pardon me. So do they. Those I love. Those I don't.
- 28:31Speaker 1: This hurting world. Thank you. Lord, this prayer is a
- 28:35Speaker 1: prayer we offer in the sweet and powerful name of
- 28:38Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. By His authority, by His accomplishment, and by
- 28:43Speaker 1: His good name, we offer this prayer. Thank You, Lord,
- 28:47Speaker 1: that You hear us. And thank You, Lord, that You
- 28:50Speaker 1: bless us. And we offer this through Jesus. And all
- 28:55Speaker 1: the church said, Amen. Thank you. I can feel it
- 33:24Speaker 1: in your distance In the.
- 33:27Speaker 3: Way you barely speak Like.
- 33:31Speaker 2: Your heart is somewhere else now Somewhere I can't reach.
- 33:53Speaker 3: I was trying just to hold us While you slowly
- 33:58Speaker 3: slipped away.
- 34:01Speaker 2: Now I'm left with all the silence You didn't want
- 34:06Speaker 2: to say Maybe I just held on To something.
- 34:18Speaker 3: Already gone I'll be fine, you can leave You don't
- 34:27Speaker 3: owe me anything If your heart is found away Out
- 34:34Speaker 3: of what we used to be I'll be fine, don't
- 34:39Speaker 3: look back I'll survive this empty space Not tonight, maybe
- 34:47Speaker 3: not soon.
- 34:51Speaker 2: To be okay we don't need to fake the feeling
- 35:00Speaker 2: i can see it in your eyes there's no reason
- 35:04Speaker 2: left for staying when.
- 35:07Speaker 3: The love already died.
- 35:12Speaker 1: Through the quiet in your.
- 35:20Speaker 3: I can hear your choice. I'll be fine.
- 35:27Speaker 1: You can leave. You don't owe me anything.
- 35:33Speaker 3: If your heart has found a way. Out of what
- 35:37Speaker 3: we used to be.
- 35:40Speaker 1: I'll be fine.
- 35:42Speaker 3: Don't look back. I'll survive this empty space. Not tonight.
- 35:49Speaker 1: Maybe not soon.
- 35:51Speaker 3: But I'll learn to be okay.
- 35:56Speaker 1: I don't need a reason why. I can see it
- 36:01Speaker 1: in goodbyes. And it breaks me, it does. But I
- 36:06Speaker 1: won't ask you to stay.
- 36:13Speaker 3: I'll be fine. You can't leave. You don't owe me anything.
- 36:21Speaker 3: If your heart is found away, how do I? I'll
- 36:27Speaker 3: be all right.