FOTP 2026: Gratitude

Gratitude. It's not an emotion, it's not a feeling. It's not some nostalgic or wistful memory of what has been, or some nebulous hope of what might be. It's not a fair weather friend that draws close to you in the summer and then you in the winter. It's not dependent on circumstances or only for warm fuzzy moments. Gratitude, after all, is a choice, an act of the will where we place ourselves completely in God's will, no matter what happens. A determination to hope in the Lord, in the midst of both happiness and sorrow. To give thanks for the good things he has given and the good things he has taken away. An inexpressible confidence in his love and inexplicable peace in his will. It turns pain into joy, trial into triumph, sorrow into sanctity, and suffering into redemption. Gratitude gives thanks to God, not because things are good, but because he is good. And gratitude our wills become one with God's so that we bless him for the life he has given us, and long for the day when he calls us home. Not my will, but yours be done. And so for all the good things that are to come and all the heartaches too, oh Lord, we give you thanks. Well, happy New Year. I'm so glad that you're here with us and those of you that may be joining us online, I love the new year. I love it because it's a, a new opportunity. And so every year I sort of, uh, frame the year. I wanna do that today and just talk about just sort of how God has, has moved in my life and, and brought some things really to, uh, to my attention. And I, I wanna lead you to focus on these things. Uh, you know, I don't like necessarily the idea of a word, uh, for the year, but this is going to be a year of gratitude. I tell you, God first, um, started working on me because I just know that in my life I have gone through a lot. Our family has. And so my motto has always been that God is good, right? God is good. I'm gonna be grateful. And so no matter what we encounter, what the circumstances are, God's doing something, there's an opportunity there somewhere. And so people ask me, how have you gotten through what you've gotten through? And I'm just telling you, it's by the grace of God, it's gratitude for the good things that he's given me. I met a, a guy that showed me an app, and this was like back almost in the summer, but it was an, an app, a church app in which you could incorporate gratitude as part of your daily, uh, spiritual discipline. And I thought, you know, when you look at scripture, when you really look at what prayer is, it is about Thanksgiving. It is recognizing what God's done for you, the fact that he is good. And you know, as we progress, God brings sort of the puzzle pieces together and, uh, you know, starts to concrete it for me. And I thought, you know, this is going to be the year of gratitude for Fellowship of the Parks, the growth that we've experienced, uh, the people that have accepted Christ. We've baptized, I think 473 people. Um, I'm excited. I'm, I'm grateful for what God has done. But you know, it's one of those things where you know that God is going to allow you to be tested. It, it's, you know, you'll go through challenges because life's not easy. Life's not always fair. It's hard. You're gonna go through trial and difficulty. Um, I love Christmas. I love Christmas Eve services, but on December 22nd, I had an eye surgery, uh, on my right eye. Don't look too close, but it's was to correct, uh, a detach retina, uh, a retina. And so I miss Christmas Eve. I've never done that. Always been able to be here for Christmas Eve services. I absolutely love it. And I thought, you know, I've got a choice to make. I can either have a pity party for myself or I can trust that God is working. I can be grateful and then expect and, and see what he's doing, because I know that's going to bring about an opportunity. Well, I found out on Friday that the surgery was not a complete success, and I have to go back again on Tuesday for another surgical procedure, and I'm gonna be mobilized really for like four days. I hope that's all it is. I'm just telling you, um, me being me, um, I have processed that. And my immediate thought was, oh no. I wanted to go to that pity party side and think, how in the world am I going to do that? It's not so much the surgery, but how can I lay in this position for this time period? You know, the temptation is to feel sorry for yourself to moan, complain to somebody, but I just had to make the choice. And you have to make the choice because you don't know what life's gonna bring you. But if God is God and you trust that he's in control, if you trust that his character is good, if you just trust him, believe and do the right thing, God's got you. God knows what's going on. Nothing escapes him. So are you going to choose a pity party, feel sorry for yourself, or see it as an opportunity? Really, a great study for us is to look at Daniel. And so I wanna turn your attention to Daniel chapter six. And this is what you should know about Daniel. Daniel was, um, a Jewish man that was living, uh, in Babylon, and he was taken by Nebuchadnezzar ii. And when they defeated the Jewish people, God allowed that to happen. You, you see this relationship in the Old Testament where, uh, the, the Jewish people tend to not obey. They trust God and do good for a while, and then they get away from him. And then God disciplines his children. And so he allowed them to be defeated. And so many were exiled. They weren't able to stay, but they were exiled back to Babylon. So Daniel is very sharp. He was chosen as a young man by, um, by Nebuchadnezzar and particularly a, a leader by the name of Darius to be part of this royal court. They would be fed special food, they would be given privilege, they would be trained and educated in those ways. And what was remarkable about Daniel, a lot of stories in the Bible, I would recommend you read the book of Daniel, but he was heads and above, uh, you know, shoulders above heads and shoulders above the others because he was faithful the to the one true God. What's also unique about him is that you see, even in this situation in which he is a, a foreigner in a foreign land, he's been basically, uh, indentured as a servant. Yet he applies himself because he knows that what he's doing, he's serving the Lord and God's going to honor him. He is a man of incredible faith. And so God blessed him, gave him abilities. And what's remarkable about him is that said that he really had no failures. Everything he did, God blessed it, impressed, uh, Darius, it impressed the leaders around him. And he was one of about three governors. Um, there was another group called SATs, but he did really good. They were jealous. They wanted to set him up for failure. They didn't like him. He had the favor of the king. And really the king was gonna turn everything over to him because he was so skilled at what he did, and because he was a faithful servant, even though he was Jewish, well, they set him up. They appealed to the king's pride. They said, you know, for the next 30 days, because they knew that Daniel would pray, he would open up his windows and he would pray not for show, it would be private, but he was praying toward Jerusalem, and they said, this is how we can get him. They conspired together and went to him and said, look, for the next 30 days, only, the only prayers that can be ushered up is prayers to you. Okay? So he signs off. That's a, that's a, that's a great thing, you know. Um, so he thought, well, they prepared this, this edict, this command and circumstances were aest could not go back on it, but they knew it. They knew that Daniel would pray and they set him up. Let me begin. In Daniel chapter six, beginning in verse seven, the royal administrators, the prefects, the SATs, the advisors and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict. Okay? That was a lie. They didn't all agree because Daniel was one of the governors, but that's the way you know, the, the crowd does it right, get everybody involved to think and convince you that everybody's for it. So why not vote for yes, and that he issued the edict and enforced the decree that anyone who praised to any God or human being during the next 30 days except to you, your majesty shall be thrown into the lion's dead. Now, your majesty issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered in accordance with the law of the Meads and the Persians, which cannot be repealed. So King Darius put the decree in writing. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. By the way, the Bible talks about, um, the prayers that there is this special, uh, I guess blessing, if you will. Um, maybe God always hears, but God favors prayers toward Jerusalem. And that's why he was opening those windows. He learned that decree had been published. He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem three times a day. He got down on his knees and he prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel serves as remarkable example to us. And here's what I want to say to you about gratitude and how I really believe that it can, it can change your life. Matter of fact, science, uh, has proved that it can actually help rewire your brain, uh, the, the, the neural links and so forth to in time. It can change the way you think. It can change the way you see things. But gratitude is not something fleeting. It's not, shouldn't be just something that you do in a moment. I mean, obviously I always show gratitude, but it's gotta be a habit. It's gotta become a habit. And this is what I want you to notice with Daniel. He prayed three times a day. He prayed three times a day, and then verse 10 there says that he got down on his knees and notice it said, giving thanks to his God. A lot of time, a lot of times prayer for us. I'll speak for myself, oh God, this is going on. This is what I got going on. My eyes messed up. God, just please do this, do that. Relieve this pain. Get me out of this situation. Get me out of these circumstances, because I don't wanna go through it. And we talk to him about what we want, kind of like kids with, you know, Christmas, right? And give you the list. I can tell you what they want. They can be very, very selfish. A lot of times we approach God in that way. But the key component of prayer is gratitude. Gratitude needs to be habitually expressed to God. And if prayer is really the foundation of that, is thanking God, then you know, how much are you thanking God daily? How much are you thanking him When you pray? How are you showing and expressing gratitude to him? And so I wanna encourage you, make it a daily habit. In prayer. Always start, God, you are, God, I thank you. There's so much that you can thank him for. But we tend to focus on the negative. We tend to focus on the problems and the circumstance instead of the God who is over those circumstances. And we miss out on the blessing. As a result, we don't think about those good things, and we focus on the negative. And that makes us pessimistic. It makes us cynical. And God doesn't want us to do that. God wants us to also habitually remind ourselves of the good things he's done. We can do that in prayer. But one thing I wanna challenge you this year, and something that I, I don't have a release date on this app, but something that we want to incorporate and give you a much better, more connected fellowship of the Parks app. It's a way that you can better express gratitude for others. Uh, just build for yourself a gratitude list or a gratitude journal. Because when you are daily, you know, writing down just one thing, typing into your phone, saying it into the phone, somehow managing this list, then you recognize that, you know what, even though there's chaos in the world, you know what, there'll always be chaos. Think about Daniel's circumstances. Think about his situation. He is a foreigner in a foreign land serving a foreign king. And that king is worshiping a foreign God, a God who is not God at all. He's in a circumstance where he has enemies that are plotting his own death. But you see this remarkable contentment, this peace that is characteristic of Daniel's life. Why is that? Because he focused his attention on the one true God, and he expressed gratitude for God. He knew that he was blessed, he knew that God was in control. Also, want to encourage you to get in the habit of expressing gratitude to those around you, to the people in your life, uh, for those even to, to go back and to look at the people that have given you opportunities and, and, and things that have helped you. You know, get to where you are today. You know, don't, don't dwell on the negative. Don't, don't focus on what you don't have. Be thankful for what you do have, and just the regular habit. And now we're so connected, sending a text, I, I'll just tell you, and a lot of texts with, Hey, love and appreciate you. And I mean that sincerely. I enjoy, you know, sending handwritten cards to people because I'm grateful for what they've done. And there's an incredible benefit to that. In fact, um, science tells us that this, you know, idea of, of expressing gratitude to others, it, it helps us socially. It helps us to engage others to just, again, improve relationships. Who doesn't need that? You know, we wanna fight and argue and, and talk about the things that we disagree with, or we get on a stump and we, we look for enemies on social media. But understand this, gratitude is something that is really counter-cultural. You see this exhibited in Daniel's life. Daniel, he knew what the decree was. He knew that for him to pray to someone other than Darius, this, uh, was something that, you know, would, would obviously cost him. Again, Daniel was not making a show of this. He just habitually did what he always did at least three times a day. He went into his upper room there, opened those windows, prayed, and he began by thanking God. Of course, they set him up, they were waiting. And this was, you know, the beginning of what they thought was going to be the end of Daniel. But God had other plans. I, I think today, um, what I experience and what I'm tempted by is I see things that I just become outraged to be honest with you. I look at things that go on in our world that what people do, and, and my natural inclination is I wanna say something against that. I wanna, I want to not only stand against it, but I frankly, I wanna be pretty harsh because, you know, if, if it's wrong, I feel like it's detrimental, it will hurt others. Yet, why not just do what you know to do what you know is right? You know, Daniel here, he, he had a relationship with Darius in which Darius knew him and trusted him. And he had not done anything wrong to Darius. He gave him respect, and they didn't worship him, but he could be counted on. He was trusted. He was a man of great character. And so he served faithfully and he just did what he did. I wanna encourage you, instead of becoming outraged, look for the things in people that you see. Good point those out. Help them see that and see if your relationships won't improve those stronger relationships. And the process of, of journaling gratitude will help you develop greater empathy. It'll help you, um, more deeply socially connect and get to know people. And that's really, a lot of times, I think what most of us long for, we want a deep connection with God, and we want a deep connection with, with other people. But we'll never do that if we're always focused on the negative. If we feel sorry for ourselves, if we assume that people are, you know, well, they should say something to me and appreciate me before I appreciate them. It's like, come on. As a follower of Jesus, new Testament perspective, we need to be bigger than that. What you see here about Daniel's life, he was extraordinary because, man, he was bigger than all those things. He didn't give into the chaos. He didn't give into the negative circumstances. He didn't give in to the threats. His think about this, you know what Daniel's safest play was? To be radically obedient to God as opposed to in fear. Give in, didn't make a big show of it. He was just trusting the Lord. This is what I want you to know. Gratitude will make chaos irrelevant in your life. I know that's a strong statement. You think how in the world, well, again, if, if we are following the one true God and we really believe that he is sovereign, we believe that he loves us, and he has a plan for us, and that we're a part of what he's doing in the world, then it's gonna be okay. Daniel did what he knew to do. He just did what he habitually did. He didn't change anything. It was counter-cultural. You know, it was counterintuitive. Everybody else, they were bowing down, you know, to the king instead of the one true God. He did what he did, and he trusted that God would work it out. In Daniel chapter six, verse 22, the first part of it says, this is testimony. My God said his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions, he shut their mouths. But here's what I want you to note. God didn't take him out of the lion's den. Daniel was still there. He still went through it. God didn't remove the lions. But in that, in that arena, what God miraculously did is he shut the mouths of the lions. But you know what? Even the king recognizes his faith. He recognizes that God delivered him. He recognized that because Daniel handled that situation and experienced contentment and peace. See, that's what gratitude will bring you. I I just want you to know, there's, there's some, some, uh, spiritual benefits here that I, I want you to see what it does. Gratitude, um, is one of those parent virtues. When we start practicing gratitude, get in the habit of that, doing those lists or journals daily, um, then what's going to happen is, again, uh, your brain is going to be rewired. You're going to be more, you're gonna see the positive. You're gonna see where God's working, where you haven't before. And, and that parent virtue of gratitude will foster other good character qualities in your life. It will build your character. It will, um, give you those, those abilities in a framework to see the world where you don't have to live in a beaten down sort of sort of existence. I, I, I just wanna mention this just quickly because I think it's important too. What gratitude will do, it will, it will foster humility in your life. It will, um, help you to become less materialistic because you start becoming focused and thankful for the relationships in your life. Who got it as and what he's done. The fact that he gives you purpose, that he gives you significance and meaning and, and as you pursue him, and, and the confidence that God's gonna work it out. But if you didn't need those reasons, I mean, just even, even if you don't believe, alright, if you're not a follower of Jesus here, here's just some other reasons science have proved this out. Let me give you a quick list. Improve mental health, um, increases your life satisfaction, optimism, and it, it increases your ability to, to have resilience, you know, to bounce back, enhance physical health. I mean, just every component of your physical health, it'll help you have better sleep. Studies show that it helps you relax and fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. I could use that in my life. Um, and then again, those brain changes are incredibly important. But it's hard, right? It's hard because man, the problems and the, oh man, this, this, you know what's right there? It causes fear. And I'll just tell you the way I've tried to handle this. Again, it's been a challenge. What I want you to do is this year, I just ask you to start the habit of keeping a gratitude journal. I really believe it'll change your life. So here's, here's what I've noticed since I've started doing it, even though there's the negative there, I, I'm not looking forward to the surgery, all of that. Here's what God did. He made it possible for me to be able to go home and see extended family. And there's a lot of detail there. And see, I know it. I can see it because I, I see how God's connected the dots. He's given me the ability to do that, and I'm thankful. And I got to express gratitude to my extended family. He gave me an opportunity where I was to be in a meeting with a person that I never thought I would, I would be with. I'll tell you more about that sometime. But man, I'm so grateful for what he's done. I'm so grateful that I, I do have sight. I'm so grateful for what he's given me. And I know that ultimately no matter what happens, God is God and he has a home for me. He is an eternal plan for me. And I'm eternally secure because I've put my faith in him. Doesn't matter what happens circumstantially because my eternity is secure. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, my prayer is, is that you would have the courage on your connection card, either digitally or physically. We wanna help you answer questions and help you come to that place so you can experience that contentment and the peace. But I also wanna pray for you, and I wanna see in your life, um, God wants see you. I wanna see it what He does and, and the changes he makes in you. When you start focus, focusing on the, the good things and believe that he is good, and you in turn are going to be grateful, let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you that you'll love us and you have a plan. God, thank you that you are God, your sovereign, meaning there's nothing that escapes you. You're all powerful. And God, thankfully, we, we don't know all of those things, but we put our faith and our trust in you. And God help us to encounter and see 2026 not focusing on all the chaos, all the misery, the hurt and the pain. We know ultimately you're the answer to that. But God, help us be faithful and thankful in the moment so that we're not swept away in misery and negativity and cynicism, but as followers of Jesus, we wanna live like Daniel and trust you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.