Stuff You Should Know A Life of Gratitude
Introduction: Wow can you believe we are about to celebrate Thanksgiving…this year has flown by, but we all have something we can be Grateful for and Give Thanks for this Thanksgiving…
Example: If you want to change your thinking you must change your focus…your attitude must change…we must begin to reshape our thoughts to be those of Gratitude.
Col 1:9-14
We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things 10 so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. 11 God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. 12 And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light. 13 God has freed us from the power of darkness, and he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. 14The Son paid for our sins, and in him we have forgiveness.
NCV
Zechariah 4:1-14 tells us of a vision that the Prophet has…instead of reading it I want to show you the picture of what he is talking about…
Transition:
Have you ever noticed we overthink the negative…we play out scenarios in our minds and they are usually the negative outcomes, words, conversations, and intents…when we are overthinking a conversation, a look, or even our own thoughts….
Rarely if ever do we overthink the Positive:
• We never overthink my business is going to make too much money
• My relationships are going to be too great and add so much value to my life…
• My walk with God is going to be to close and to meaningful
Why does this happen to us?
We fall into negative patterns and thought patterns. You have to move into Positive patterns and Grateful Thoughts…Movement requires intentionality…
Now before we consider moving forward, we need to move upward…Move up Higher
• Higher Thoughts
• Higher Capacity
• Higher Dreams
• Higher Relationships
• Higher Relationship with God
• Higher Character
o Grace
o Integrity
o Love
o Gratitude
When we are GRATEFUL, we are fully alive.
• A recent study from those who research the brain said: “The lubricant of the brain is Gratitude”
• Gratitude allows us to absorb every possible pleasure from a moment.
o The opposite of Greed is not Poverty, but Generosity.
o While it is no small challenge to learn how to live without, it is an even greater challenge to learn to live with.
o Too often we neglect the good we could do to avoid the evil we might do.
o The solution is not to stop doing good in order to ensure that we don’t do evil.
o God freed us from sin not to leave us empty but to fill us with life. You and I overcome selfishness with servant–hood and greed with generosity.
• As tempting as it may be to live detached from the world around us, it is not in keeping with the heart of God.
o It is so easy to confuse Christianity with Buddhism in this way.
o We know that greed corrupts and destroys, so we conclude that the only way to be free is to detach ourselves from all human desire until we withdraw from the world we live in.
o Jesus on the other hand clearly enjoyed his life.
o He was chastised for not living a boring life of religion.
o Jesus was having way too much fun for the religious observers who watched Him.
Transition: When we replace greed with generosity, we exchange a black hole for a wellspring. The goal is not to have less, but to give and be more. Generosity is the result of a life in continuous overflow.
I. How Do You Live in the Continual Overflow
a. Back to our Picture in Zech.4 is the imagery of “constant overflow”
b. Background
i. This is the 5th vision among 8.
ii. It is a vision of God’s Grace which is not only available but is there for the life that desires to be fully alive and the work that must be accomplished
iii. Haggai had charged Zerrubbabel, the governor, the task of rebuilding the temple of the Lord
iv. See the walls were built, by Nehemiah and his team, in 52 days, but now it is 75 years later and the temple isn’t built as of yet…back in the day, some of you thought our building programs weretaking a while…
v. So, God raises up Zerrubbabel:
1. His name means: “One who confuses the enemy”
a. Do you know how to confuse the enemy…when he strikes your life, you don’t respond the way he wants you to…it drives the enemy crazy!!!
b. Expressing Gratitude will confuse the enemy especially when you have to search for things to be grateful for…
c. The Vision
i. Zechariah is shown 7 lamp stands
ii. He sees a bowl full of oil above the lamp stands acting as a reservoir
iii. He saw pipes feeding the lamp stands fresh oil to burn each individual lamp
iv. Then Zechariah sees 2 trees continually dripping oil into the bowl…they are feeding the bowl which is feeding the lamps
v. Now the supply was constant, so therefore the lamps burned continuously without ceasing
Transition: What I am going to share is one of many interpretations of this text…but I think it is an interpretation that will bless your life.
II. The Process of the Care of the Lamp Stands
a. When you care for the lamps a couple things had to take place…
b. Notice the oil is flowing…so if there is not problem with the flow…where in lies the challenge
i. The wicks
ii. The pipes have to be cleaned not to hinger the flow
iii. The lamps had to stay connected to the source of fuel, of oil…
III. You Are The Lamp
a. In my interpretation of the text…. you and I are the Lamps that are burning in the text…
i. Luke 12:35
35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
NKJV
b. Notice the text…waist is singular while lamps isplural…
i. We have but one waist, but we have many lamps…
ii. We have more than one lamp burning in our hearts and lives…
iii. I would contend that we have 7 lamps burning within us, but today I am not prepared to tell you what I think those 7 lamps are….
1. Revelation 4:5 says, “the Holy Spirit is revealed as seven lamps of fire that burn before the throne…”
2. Isaiah 11 speaks of the “seven spirit of God”
iv. I will say one of those lamps is LOVE…
c. Notice the Bowl sits above the lampstand. This means the oil flows down from the bowl into the seven lamps, so therefore the lamps are not just a flicker, but they are a blazing burning lamp…
IV. Making this Practical
a. Olive Trees is a symbol of
i. Peace
ii. Friendship
iii. Reconciliation
iv. Cleansing
v. Healing
vi. Light
vii. Victory
viii. Richness and Wealth beyond money…
b. We must see ourselves as the Lampstand, as a devout believer called by God to provide compassionate leadership in the building of the Kingdom of God.
i. See a lamp brings
1. Comfort
a. You’ve been around a nice camp fire…it brings an element of comfort and beauty…
2. Illumination
a. It brings forth light to see by…
b. Ps. 119:105 says, “The word is a lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path.”
3. Protection
a. Light brings Protection…you’ve seen the movies…they build the fires and keep them blazing so the wolves don’t come around along with any other predators…
4. Warmth
a. If the lamp is hot enough it provides a measure of Warmth
b. When a fire is built, what do we do…we huddle around it…looking to stay warm and close to the fire for protection
5. The fire is Inviting
ii. You and I are to be those things in this world
1. To our families
2. To our friends
3. On our jobs
4. In our communities…
5. At Thanksgiving Dinner….
iii. Matthew says, “We light a candle and put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house…”
c. See this is why Zechariah says, “it is not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord…”
i. It is about the flow of oil into your life that produces the Light
ii. See when it is about the Lord providing the oil to our lives…you begin to build Holy Ghost momentum
iii. Why? Because the Lord is working in you and through you…
V. Two Olive Trees
a. Zech. 4:11-14
b. Zechariah asks three times – Tell me about these two olive trees. What are the Olive Trees? The angel answers, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.”
c. Wow isn’t that vague…but the question comes from a deeper question.
i. I want to know who the olive trees are because that is where the oil comes from…they are the source of my oil, the constant supply.
d. See once we know the source we know the secret to living in a constant overflow of divine life and grace…with Gratitude
e. The two olive trees Speak to two possibilities and both may be true at the same time…
i. The Word and the Spirit
ii. We need both…the Word and the Spirit to flow into our lives
1. Several times the scripture says, “Be filled with the spirit…”
2. That word “filled” means a continuous flow or overflow.
iii. The letter alone killeth, but the spirit giveth life
1. The letter must always be mixed with the spirit of God to bring forth life…
a. Surely you have seen people torn apart by using the scripture…beating people up…but Jesus said, “His words are life and freedom…” Why because they are mixed with spirit and when received it causes the Lamps in us to burn bright…
Col 1:9-14
We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things 10 so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. 11 God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. 12 And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light. 13 God has freed us from the power of darkness, and he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. 14 The Son paid for our sins, and in him we have forgiveness.
NCV
VI. Closing
a. The Pipes are what feeds the Oil to the Lamps
i. You and I were created to let Jesus shine in us and through us…
Matt 5:16-17
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
NKJV
b. But you and I have got to keep the pipes free and clear so that fresh oil can flow into our lives…
c. The issue is not, “Work Harder” The issue is “Get Oil”
d. We have to be connected to the source of Oil
i. Prayer helps that…
ii. Renewing your thoughts helps that…
iii. But nothing allows the oil to flow in your life like GRATITUDE!!!
1. Create a Grateful List…where you write down all the things you are grateful for…begin to give God Thanksgiving praise for those people and things that make your list
2. Go on Gratitude walks…where you walk and just rehearse all you are grateful for…
iv. Praise and Worship is an expression of Gratitude and Thanksgiving…
1. Enter into His Gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise
Take God at His Word: 12 And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light.
