Skip to content On Mission: The Power of a Thankful Heart Nov 25 · 34 min ...more
On Mission: The Power of a Thankful Heart
November 25, 2025 · 34 min
Pastor John Mark reveals how scientific research now confirms what Scripture has taught all along – thankfulness is not just a virtue, but a vital force for human flourishing.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton November 25, 2025 · 34 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark reveals how scientific research now confirms what Scripture has taught all along – thankfulness is not just a virtue, but a vital force for human flourishing. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark reveals how scientific research now confirms what Scripture has taught all along – thankfulness is not just a virtue, but a vital force for human flourishing.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
The Power of a Thankful Heart 0:00 You glad you're in God's house today? Amen. So glad that you are here, present. Also welcome those who are online. If you've been with us all month, November is always our mission month here at Cottonwood Creek.0:12 Week 1, we talked about mission Jesus way. We said, listen, being on mission for Jesus always starts with a surrendered heart, then it flows through a serving church, and then it ultimately reaches those who are far0:24 from God. And so that's what we looked at in week 1. Week 2 was, my favorite Sunday or weekend in all the year. It is our gift weekend. Now well over 3100 or 3200 people have0:35 participated somewhere, somehow, someway in a local mission, a national mission, or an international mission. Then last week we started talking about really, what it means to be on mission,0:47 not just internationally, but to our neighbors. See, we can't reach the international community until we are willing to walk across the street or just around the cubicle in our office and just really share0:59 grace there. So today, as we look back on all that God has done, I wanna talk to you today about the power of a thankful heart. As we journey into,1:12 this Thanksgiving season, how many of you are hosting Thanksgiving at your house? Raise your hand. How many of you are gonna travel to someone else's house? Raise your hand. That's all of us, alright? You're gonna do 11:23 or the other. And so I wanna talk to you about the power of thankfulness. Now there might be someone here in person or online, Pastor, you have no idea how bad my life is right now. What's going1:35 on in my life? I've got nothing to be thankful for. Let me just prove you wrong. Everybody everybody do this, do this. I'm not going on till you do this. Alright, now do this.1:48 Now do this. Is it beating? That's a good starting point. Right? Because how many of you know there's another option? Then you would really be2:00 ungrateful. So if you're sitting here going, I got nothing to be grateful for. If your heart is beating, that is the baseline. As I was getting ready for this, you know, a lot of times people say, well he's preaching on2:11 Thanksgiving, doesn't matter, it's it's just something that they talk about after Thanksgiving. So I said, let's do some research. And and I love doing research, I love reading articles and in medical2:23 journals, whatever it is, and just went out there and found a bunch of articles that talked about the impact of being thankful and grateful on our physical health,2:35 in our relationships, and in our mental health. Those 3 areas, I'm just gonna those are the categories I'm gonna give you. And so here's what I found, and what we found is that long before Harvard existed or Berkeley2:47 any of these other universities of California or Georgia universe, long before those ever existed and found out God said be grateful and thankful. Why? Because he made us. And it is healthy for2:59 us. Let's start number 1. Now here's what research, scientific research now has proven, gratitude improves your physical health. You can go read this, I'll even give you the article title, Harvard3:11 Medical School. I think they think they're a big deal. It's called here's the title of the article, Giving Thanks Makes You Healthier. Here were the key findings from this article. Grateful and thankful people report3:23 fewer aches and pains. How many of you have at least 1 ache or pain in here today? Alright. That's me just so just look around whoever raised their they're the ungrateful people. They just flat3:34 out reported their aches and pain. No, I'm kidding. This is people who are grateful, they they just don't talk about it. They just flow through it. They understand my heart is beating. I've got something to be grateful3:45 for. Yes, my ankle or my knee or my hip or my arm, I might hurt. Here's the second thing, gratitude is strongly associated, tell me about your health, with better sleep and3:57 improved mood and overall more of being more physically well off. Alright? So gratitude matters. Right? University of California, Journal of Personality and4:09 Sociology, don't match your physical health. Here's the name of the article. It's doctor Robert Irmins, Emmons, How Practicing Gratitude Makes You Healthier and Happier. Here were his key findings.4:21 If you gratitude journal, it reduces your stress hormones by up to 23 percent. In other words, just every day, pull out a journal, write down what you4:33 were thankful for that day, and what happens is it improves, your hormones, by up to 23 percent. Here's the other thing he found out, gratitude and thankfulness strengthen your immune4:45 system and lower your inflammatory biomarker. So in other words, if you want to be healthier, just be thankful. It boosts your immune system. Here's the next 1. What about4:57 your relationships? If you're married, you're with your kids, if you're single, just your friends, whatever it is. University of Georgia. Any bulldogs in the room?5:12 Yeah. I wasn't asking for booze right there. Here's what here's their article, alright? The Power of a Thank You, Gratitude in Your Romantic Relationships.5:25 I'm not gonna read you all the key findings, okay? I'll read you a couple of them. Here here's if gratitude and your romantic relate, here were the key finding. University of Georgia expressing gratitude increases your5:37 overall marital satisfaction, and I won't finish the rest of that sentence. Thankfulness and gratefulness strengthens resilience in your relationships during conflict.5:50 You understand? When you just constantly say thank you, I appreciate you, I care for you, when you go through a tough season, you're more resilient. Why? Because you built up that storehouse6:03 of a loving and caring and grateful and a kind heart. So when things don't go well that day, you've got resources to pull from that, hey, that is not usually the way they talk to6:14 me. That is not usually the way they respond. Does that make sense? So here here's the other thing they found out. Partners feel more connected, more valued when their partner is more grateful. Here, this is from the6:26 American Psychology Association. Alright? Here's the article title, you can go look at the grateful brain. Alright? Here were their key findings. Simply saying thank you increases6:38 trust in your relationships. Alright? Just by simply saying thank thanks for the cup of coffee, thanks for the fill, thanks for filling my car up, whatever it is. Just saying thank you increases relational trust, we're6:49 talking about thank you. Gratitude, here's the second thing, it rewires our brain, listen to this, toward connection while criticism rewires our7:01 brain towards disconnection. Do you understand what I'm saying? The more you say thankful, the more you express your appreciation or your gratitude for your partner or your friend or someone, it literally7:12 rewires their brain and your brain for connection. Now if all you do is criticize, it actually rewires your brain for disconnection,7:24 to be have space between you, alright? So you wanna be someone who is bringing your partner, your friends closer to you so be grateful. Here's a third area, in your mental health. Gratitude improves your7:36 mental health. This comes from the journal of personality and social psychology. Here's the name of the article, counting blessings versus counting burdens. A lot of us are really good at counting burdens. Here were7:48 their key findings. Gratitude reduces depression and anxiety. The effects of gratitude and thanksgiving last for months. So what happens if you have been a grateful and a thankful8:00 person and all of a sudden you get that bad doctor's report, the carryover, the momentum of just simply being grateful or thankful lasts literally for months. People who felt grateful and thankful,8:12 or were surrounded by thankful and grateful people reported higher levels of well-being, optimism and life satisfaction. I want to break that down for you. People who were grateful and thankful8:25 reported a much higher level of life satisfaction. But did you miss the second part of that? Also, those who are surrounded by thankful people8:38 were influenced by the gratefulness and thankfulness in their in their friends lives, so their overall life life response went up as well. So here's what I'm saying,8:50 is if you are that thankful person, it's gonna rewire your brain. It's gonna make you feel better. It's gonna give you life satisfaction. But if you were just around someone, that that that they can just see you be9:01 grateful and see you be thankful in good seasons, in bad seasons, guess what? Their overall life satisfaction goes up as well. So I wanna encourage you as you go to Thanksgiving, alright? Some say they're9:13 coming, some of you are you're traveling there. How many of you, be honest, you're gonna be at that table with that person? How many of you just know? Don't we know? You're gonna end up at9:25 that table and and you already kinda like dread it right now. Just go drop a gratitude bomb on them. Alright? Who made this? Thank you all for this, thank you for that. Alright, here's the next9:37 thing, mental health. Last 1 I'm gonna talk. UC Berkeley, they think they're a big deal, I think. Their center is called the Greater Good Science Center. They just research. Here's the article, how9:48 gratitude changes you and your brain. I've already talked about your brain. Writing down, listen, simply writing down 3 things a day can increase10:00 your overall happiness, 3 things that you're thinking for, by 25 percent, not my research, theirs, in 10 weeks. So let's say you're in 1 of those seasons that, man, it's just a10:12 it's a it's a tough season. Just start waking up every day, write down 3 things you're thankful for. I don't know if you've ever done this or tried this. I I want to be honest with you, there are sometimes I'm not real10:24 creative. The same thing, what I'm thankful for today is the same thing as yesterday, I just write ditto. Right? Just just ditto. Right? But wake up every day and guess what? Your10:35 overall happiness will go up 25 percent in 10 weeks because a lot of times what do we do? We wake wake up worrying about our burdens or focusing on our burdens and the things that aren't right, instead of being grateful10:46 for what is right. Here's the next thing they found, UC Berkeley. Gratitude causes long term brain changes toward positivity. We now are doing a great job of10:57 mapping the brain and the thoughts and here's what they have absolutely found, that the more you are positive and grateful and thankful, it will reroute your thoughts and your11:09 minds so that you actually become a more positive person. At the same time, if you aren't grateful and aren't, they can map that you are going to the,11:21 negative side of your brain. That you wake up expecting something bad to happen instead of expecting something good to happen. Here's the last thing. Those who are grateful and those who are thankful are11:33 more emotionally resilient. That matters. Because how many of you know that at some point, sometime, someday,11:44 something's coming your way that's gonna be hard to handle? If you live your life today gratefully and thankfully, you will be more emotionally resilient when it finally shows11:56 up. Alright? So it matters. So I want you to know, long before Harvard, UC Berkeley, Georgia, all these other places discovered this, God said he created us and12:08 he created us to be grateful and thankful people. So let's just dive into God's word and look at this idea of what it means to be thankful. Here, Psalm 1 0 7 verse 1. I love this word. Give12:20 thanks. Everybody say give thanks. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Why? His love endures forever. Can I just tell you, whatever your burdens are right now, whatever your problems are, how12:32 many of you know how blessed you are to live in North Texas, to live here? Can I tell you, there are probably several billion people that would trade places with you right now? How many of you know12:44 that? There are people around this world that would pray for your problems. They would say, I'll swap right now, let's go. And so child of God, we wanna do what? We wanna give thanks to the Lord. Why?12:56 Because he is good, his love endures forever. What about a blueprint for when you come into church? I stand out in the atrium from time to time and I'm not sure if you're coming to church or going to DMV.13:08 I mean I look at the frowns and I'm like, man you're going there expecting to be in line, looking for something to complain about, expecting to be slow. Let me tell you the blueprint for coming to church. Psalm 100 verse13:18 1, shout for joy. Everybody say shout. Shout. Man, you know you shout for joy to the lord all the earth. Why? Worship the lord with gladness, there it is,13:29 come before him with joyful songs. Know that the lord is our god and listen to these words, it is He who made you. God13:41 created you in such a way that when you are grateful, when we celebrate, when we shout for joy, when we come into God's house and give the it rewires our brain, it strengthens our relationship, it allows us to be a13:53 more emotionally resilient. Man, when you come into church, you need to come in fired up, ready to sing, ready to praise, ready to be reminded that God built us and what he said is I built you14:05 in such a way that the more grateful and thankful you are, the more and thankful you are, the more benefit you are to his kingdom, to those around you, and as well as ultimately to yourself.14:17 So he says, know that the lord is god and he is the 1 that made you and we are his people, we are his people, his sheep, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with what? With14:29 thanksgiving. Man, being thankful is not an option. It's not an option. That is a command in the Hebrew, enter his gates14:40 with thanksgiving, come to church with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Notice again, give thanks to him and praise his name. Why? For the lord, listen14:52 to this, the lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues throughout all of our generations. Now, so let me give you a a couple of thoughts as you as you think about this. You say, pastor,15:06 how thankful should I be? I just sat in my office this week and just started pondering on it and you know, my thoughts were, you know, God, what all can I be thankful for? And I just begin to make a make a list. And a15:16 lot of times when we think about being thankful, especially when we're in church, we say, hey listen, I need to thank God. And then I just begin to go through all their other prepositions.15:28 What about behind me, in front of me, and down, and in? And so here's what I came up with. Our thankfulness and our gratitude needs to be multi directional and multi dimensional. You say15:40 where? First of all, look up to God and goodness. What did James say to the brother of Jesus? Every good and perfect gift comes from the father above. We wanna look down. When the foundation in our life gets a little15:51 shaky, Psalm 40 says, when you look down, he set my feet on a firm foundation. When life is cracking apart and your foundation's a little shaky, look down, God says, I'll16:03 give you a firm foundation. What about ahead of you? None of us know what's gonna happen tomorrow. Look at your future with praise and thanks and gratitude. What did he say in Jeremiah 29 verse 11? For I16:15 know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and give you a future. What about behind you? Man, look behind you at God's faithfulness. So many times16:27 we forget how many times God has brought us through something that we're so worried about. Psalm 1 0 3 verse 2, forget not all of his blessings and his benefits. Man, when you and I turn around and look, man, just say,16:38 God, thank you for getting me through that. God, thank you for getting me through that. Look around you, at God's people around you. What does it say in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1? We are surrounded, everybody16:49 say surrounded, by such a great cloud of witnesses. When I look around, there are those who are running with me, those who have gone before me. What an amazing thought. Look beside you. Everybody look to your left, look17:00 to your right. Alright? Just tell them right now I'm thankful for you. I'm grateful for you. Alright? And if they're asleep, wake them up. It's gonna be gonna get better. Says, remember in scripture,17:12 we're always talked about people that worked with each other. Ruth and Naomi. Remember that? David and Jonathan. Paul and Silas. Barnabas and John Mark. I mean,17:24 over and over again, man, we need to understand that we are walking, going through life together. You know, you can look inside you and be thankful. I don't know about you, but there are times,17:35 how many of you from time to time when you look inside, you go, I really don't want to look in there. Yeah. We all do. But you know, you can be grateful and thankful in advance, why? Because what17:47 did God say through Paul in Philippians chapter 1 verse 6? And when you look within and you don't like what you see, remember this promise: He who began a good work in you17:59 will be faithful to complete it. God's not done with us yet. And so folks, we can look multidimensional, multidirectional and we can see we should be grateful and thankful18:11 anywhere and everywhere we are. I love Daniel chapter 6. Hopefully you have your app open. I'll talk about it. If you if you go to Daniel chapter 6, the beginning of the story is this, is that, remember18:23 Daniel has been taken off with the others into captivity over to Nebuchadnezzar, have a have a couple of regime changes and Daniel and his friends have just been faithful, they have operated with18:34 integrity. And so when King Darius and the Persians came in, he takes notice of Daniel. Daniel essentially ends up being his right hand man running all the government. And so you have all these satraps and other18:45 politicians and other administrators, they're jealous of Daniel. Why? Because he's the outsider. He's not a Persian like them. He's a Jew. And so they start looking through the books and say, maybe he's cooked the18:57 books and maybe we can find his integrity is bad, maybe we can hear him bad mouthing the king, we can report something. They can't find anything to tear him down on. So they said, oh here's what we do know, he19:09 worships his God and he always will. So they go to king Darius and they say, I got an idea. They set a political trap for Daniel. They say, here's the idea, why don't we for 30 days, King you're such a great king, they19:19 just start talking about the king, about kingly things. You know what, we ought to have a decree, a decree that for the next 30 days, no 1 prays to any other god, everybody has to pray to King Darius. Darius, being a19:31 king, said, that actually is a good idea. So he signs that up, and they immediately snicker because they know Daniel's not gonna do it. So Daniel, he wasn't in on the19:42 meeting, alright? That was the cabinet meeting he missed. So all of a sudden, then he hears the horn, he hears everything. So what's that? Well, for the next 30 days, Daniel, everybody in the kingdom19:55 has got to worship the king, and if you don't worship the king, remember there's a political shift, a cultural shift, and the consequences were severe. If you don't worship the king or if you pray to anybody20:07 other than the king, you're going to the lion's den. Well, let's see how Daniel respond. Pick it up in Daniel chapter 6 verse 10. Here it is. It says, now when Daniel20:18 learned that a decree had been published, the law was changed, culture shift, consequences severe, he went home to his upstairs room with the windows wide20:30 open towards Jerusalem. 3 times a day, what did he do? He got down on his knees and he prayed, doing what? Giving thanks to his God.20:43 Daniel says, you know what my spiritual habit is? I go 3 times and I pray with my windows open toward Jerusalem and I give thanks to God. Do you know what I'm gonna do? In in light of the political shift, the cultural20:53 shift, the consequences being severe, I'm gonna do exactly what I've always done. I'm I'm gonna go into my space and I'm gonna hit my place, I'm gonna get down on my knees and I'm gonna give thanks to God, just as he had21:05 done before. Notice those words. Just as he had done before. See, Daniel developed his pattern of prayer and and gratefulness and thankfulness before21:17 the problem. And before the hardships and before the difficulties. And I want to encourage us to be the kind of people that develop those habits of gratefulness. You say, Pastor, give us give us some ideas21:28 on on being grateful and thankful. Let me just give you a couple of thoughts. I'll give you maybe just say it. How about that? Don't just think it, say it out loud. Man, when you cross somebody,21:40 when you when you leave here today, alright, I I want you to know the 9 o'clock service apparently listened to this point, at least to this point. I don't know if they ignored everything else. So listen, when you leave21:51 here, say thank you for the person to the person who's opening your door. Thank say thank you for the student ministries caring for your kid. Say thank you for the volunteers out in the parking lot. Yeah, I mean just22:02 just go by. Hey, you know those people you were mean to driving in in the yellow vest? Go back and when you drive by them, just pause and say thank you.22:14 Here's what's cool, this is not I'm not kidding. I just walked by, I saw them, I was picking on them, I said love the yellow vest. And they said, what'd you say? What do you mean? They all stopped and said, thank22:26 you. Well guess what our parking team said, would you get on with it? Right? That's good. Just thank you. Alright, so keep moving, but a lot of thank you at them. Alright, if you go eat, just say it out22:38 loud. Men. Every time your wife does something for you, little or big, just say thank you. Every time your kid does something,22:49 say thank you. Ladies, every time your husband does something for you, just say thank you. Here's another thing, write it down. I told you, they said the research says if you write 3 things you're thankful down,23:02 your mood will improve by 23 percent. Pray it with appreciation. Just man, when you wake up in the morning, God, thank you for everything that I have and remember there'd be billions of people that would trade places23:13 with you right now. So pray with appreciation. Hey, celebrate the little blessings. What are the little things in your life? I already showed you 1. When you23:25 wake up in the morning, yep, still beating. Thank you, God. Celebrate the little things, the small express gratefulness to your relationships, your friends and your family, we're moving into be23:37 thankful, how about this, in the hard moments and hard seasons. Next time you go through something difficult, man, just just pause and say, God, thank you that you have equipped me to go through this. I'm not going to go23:48 through it alone. I've got your presence. I've got my people. We're going to be fine. How about this, swap your complaints for gratitude. Can I tell you24:00 what complaining all day is like? It's like having morning breath all day. You know what? I think people know about morning breath.24:14 You want to throw an Altoid in your mouth? Start praising people. Start being grateful. Just thank you for the little things and the big things, man, that'll change your demeanor.24:26 Serve somebody else. Serve somebody else. Don't expect every everybody to do something for you. Look for look for ways that you can do something for somebody else. Here's another way to be grateful.24:38 How about this? Just notice people. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you go to the grocery store this afternoon or whatever, man every time you're rolling up and down the aisle, you're how you doing24:50 today? How are you doing today? How are you doing today? Man, you're checking out, hey how's your day going? You have big plans for Thanksgiving? I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Man, just start noticing people.25:01 Here's here's the final 1, just choose contentment. When you acknowledge and realize that you have everything you need, we are a blessed people. You will be25:13 happier, more grateful. So let me give you 4 thoughts on thankfulness. Really? What does it look like, the power of a thankful heart? Here's number 1, a thankful heart sees God's goodness in every situation. Look at what25:25 the psalmist said in Psalm 1 0 3 verse 2. He sees God's goodness. He says, praise the Lord my soul and do not forget and forget not all his benefits. Man, we want to be the kind of people25:36 that just sees God at work and sees God's goodness in every situation. Maybe you put it this way, I think the guys will definitely get it. You know what? Thankfulness doesn't always fix the problem,25:49 but it makes it squeak less. I think gratitude is a lot like WD 40, is there a dude in the room who knows what I'm talking about? Amen. WD 40, FYI, it doesn't fix26:01 anything. It just quiets down the squeak. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Alright. You don't spray w d 40 on it and all of a sudden the gate says, I'm fixed. No, it just gets26:13 quieter broken. That's exactly what it does. So I want you know, when you are thankful and grateful, when you complain it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. When you and I are grateful, it's like w d26:25 40. It's not necessarily gonna fix the problem, but it's gonna make it more enjoyable to be around. So he says, praise the lord my soul and forget not all of its benefits. Remember Jesus 1 time in Luke chapter26:36 17, we'll read it, you can turn it there, open your app. He is walking towards Jerusalem. And there's a bunch of lepers that are out there and lepers had to stay outside the community, they couldn't approach people, and26:47 they they had no relationships. They basically had these leper communities and they just hung around till they died outside the gates. So it says, now when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the26:58 border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into the village, 10 men who had leprosy met him, notice they had to stand at a distance, they had to do that and called out with a loud voice, Jesus27:09 master, have pity on us. And when he saw them, he said this, go show yourselves to the priest. Now notice this, as they were going they were cleansed. So 10 dudes,27:21 alright? This is more than w d 40, they are actually getting cleansed and healed. Only 1 of them, says 1 of them, man, we have a thankful heart, we see other27:34 things that other people just overlook. When he saw he was healed, he turned around, came back. And notice those words, praising God in a loud27:46 voice. Praise and gratitude, man it'll turn that moment into a miracle. That you could step back and say, that was God.27:59 I didn't see that coming. That was all God. He he made it happen. Look at verse 16, and not only did he say it with a loud voice, he threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.28:11 You see, when we become great grateful people or thankful people, we stop focusing on what we don't have and we start focusing on what we do have. And everybody in this room and everybody online, you have28:23 way more than most people. And so we want to be grateful and thankful and we'll stop worrying about that that I don't have and we'll focus more on what I do have. He threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him,28:35 verse 16, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus asked, were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other 9?28:47 Child of God, don't make God ask about you. Whether you're grateful or thankful, you be that 1 that impacts them forever. So number 1, a thankful28:58 heart sees God's goodness in every situation. Here's number 2, a thankful heart shifts your attitude and oftentimes the atmosphere of the situation. I love first Thessalonians29:11 chapter 5 verse 16, it says rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. Now I want you to know that's hard. I'm not a I'm not a fan of all29:22 my circumstances. I'm not a fan of all places and all things, but I wanna do this. Why? For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Changes your attitude in the atmosphere.29:34 You you remember in Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas had just been preaching the word, they'd shared the gospel. When they preached the word and when they were sharing the gospel, they got thrown into prison wrongly.29:46 They were beaten, they were put in stocks, they were put in prison and it said, and you go read it, it's in your notes, at midnight, they turned the darkest hour into a season of praise. Can29:58 I tell you, we we all know the story? They started singing, they started praying, they started praising God, and what happened? The the chains fell off and the doors to the prison opened. When they started30:10 praising God and they started thanking God, guess what? They still didn't know the outcome. But they started praising God anyway. And you remember what happened, just go read it. I put it in30:22 your notes. Hopefully you have your app, go read it. It says as they were praising God and thanking God, it says listen to this, the other prisoners heard them.30:35 Child of God, when you live a thankful and grateful life, others hear. Others take note. So a thankful heart sees30:47 God's goodness in every situation. A thankful heart, number 2, changes the attitude and even the atmosphere of the situation, the trial you're going through. Here's number 3, a30:59 thankful heart serves others with joy. Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Why? Since you're members of 1 body, that's us. Everybody say that's us.31:11 You didn't say that with much enthusiasm. Everybody say that's us. That's us. You are 1 body. You're called to peace and be thankful.31:26 Thankfulness? It is a lot like that cup of coffee in the morning. Because some of you are not any fun without it.31:38 How many of you know what I'm talking about? You ever walked up to somebody and they're kind of dour and down, you're like, can I get you a cup of coffee?31:52 Someone comes to you dour and sour. Maybe you just say, have you thought about being grateful and thankful today? So whatever we do, we're gonna32:04 serve God with grateful and thankful hearts. Changes me physically for the good. It32:15 changes my relationships for the better. It sets my mind and it prepares it for the next thing that is coming our way. Child of God, when we32:27 leave here today let's be the most thankful people North Texas have ever seen. Let it start as you walk out of these doors, whoever's open doors, keeping your kids, serving you, parking cars,32:40 just pause and say thank you. And then carry it on throughout the week. If it can change you, it can change your thanksgiving. Let's pray. God, thank you so32:51 much. I thank you so much for just being a great and an awesome God who tolerates a people who often times are ungrateful33:03 for what we do have. God, thank you for tolerating me when I focus in a day or a season or a week more on what I don't have than what I do have.33:16 God, thank you for tolerating me, tolerating me when I I don't give you the praise and the things that I should. God, let us be a people that just dominate33:29 with an attitude of gratitude and an attitude of thankfulness for us, for our families, and for our communities. In Jesus name we pray,33:41 Amen and Amen.In this video 0:00 The Power of a Thankful Heart
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