November 26, 2024 • 61 mins
God wants to use your gratitude to transform your Thanksgiving gatherings this year, turning potential family drama into meaningful connection through the power of genuine appreciation and blessing.
• The art of gratitude isn't just saying "thank you" but reflecting God's goodness and grace through how we live
• Gratitude becomes contagious when we focus on blessing others rather than expecting to be blessed
• Like paint on canvas that only reveals its color when light hits it, our lives reflect God's goodness when we're grateful
• Learning to forgive difficult family members before gatherings creates space for genuine gratitude
• A powerful Thanksgiving tradition: have each person at the table share what they love about someone else
• The most grateful people are often those who have experienced brokenness and found God's restoration
• We can do more good by being a light for Jesus than through political arguments or criticism
• Genuine blessing catches people off guard and can completely change relationships
This Thanksgiving, prepare your heart by praying for those you'll gather with. Ask God to show you something you genuinely admire in each person that you can publicly acknowledge and celebrate.
Ready to be the parent or grandparent you’ve always dreamed of becoming? Subscribe and Tune into my podcast each week, and check out my resources, heartfelt encouragement, and practical tools to help you make a lasting impact on the ones you love most. Click this link below:
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Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:33):
Ava, welcome.
I'm looking forward to tonight.
So we got things.
SPEAKER_00 (00:39):
What kind of father do you want to be?
What kind of man do you want tobecome for your family and for
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(01:01):
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(01:21):
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(01:42):
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SPEAKER_01 (01:53):
Hey, well, welcome.
Uh, we are just a couple of daysaway from Turkey Day.
And tonight we're gonna talkabout just this that the art of
gratitude.
And what does that look like?
Uh, welcome, a bunch of guys uhjoining from all over the place,
(02:14):
a number of different places.
Welcome to Rumble and Instagram,Hogan, G Fowl, uh Jordo there,
Mr.
Kennedy.
Welcome here tonight at the Artof Gratitude.
I'm your host, Ed TanyaMcGlassen, and we're gonna talk
tonight about really the art ofgratitude and how to get into
(02:35):
that place as a man, a husband.
We've actually invited some galsto join us tonight because we
normally have a Thursday nightgroup, and but it's
Thanksgiving, and we're allgonna have trichtopane poisoning
and be laying on our couchesduring right after the
(02:55):
Thanksgiving meal.
Anybody have those stories thathave happened in your life?
So grateful that you're here.
Love your comments, questions.
You can do that.
And so I want to get right intowhat we're gonna talk about
tonight, and really about theart of gratitude and really what
does that mean in our lives, andhow do we get into that place
(03:20):
where we can really connect withour family, our kids, our wife,
this Thanksgiving?
Because we can eat eat themeals, and and it's so, you
know, it's a typical kind ofscenario that there's a lot of
uh hesitation by family membersbecause of certain people at
(03:42):
Thanksgiving dinner.
Oh, I had some whopperThanksgiving dinners in my
family growing up.
How about you?
And you know, I you know, I Iremember so many of those
memories that, you know, couldhave really turned out badly,
(04:02):
but learned how to how to reallybegin to understand how to love
that person that's across fromyou.
And plus, we got the addeddimension of people who are, you
know, really upset about theelection and you know, the uh
brainiacs and the media and in acertain party were actually
(04:25):
telling family members to notspend the holidays with their
family members if they voted forTrump.
So sad.
So little.
Those newscatchers don't live inour homes, and they don't know
about the power of forgivenessand how we can build lives
(04:47):
together.
So, we're gonna talk about howdo we kind of enter into this
thing that in my title tonight,The Art of Gratitude.
So, when you think aboutgratitude, what do you think
about?
Somebody who's grateful, right?
Somebody who's that thanks you alot for everything.
(05:07):
Is that really the gratitudethat that's sustainable in our
life?
Because it's really hard tothank somebody if you don't feel
very thankful.
And, you know, and and peopleare struggling.
And so tonight we're gonna dothat.
And this the subtitle of our uhuh time together is having a
wonderful Thanksgiving despitefamily drama.
(05:32):
Anybody have family drama whereyou know people are just like,
you know, they're coming over.
Oh, there's one of my friends,Kelly Lawley, one of the best
real estate people I know inSouthern California.
Get a shout out to her.
You want her to sell your houseso you can move to Tennessee and
buy a mansion.
(05:54):
A lot of people seem to be doingthat these days.
Well, not us.
We love California.
And so I want to start out by afunny story that happened a
couple Thanksgivings ago.
I was at the market here gettingmy last-minute Thanksgiving
(06:14):
items.
You know, you know the ones youforget and you got to rush out
before people come over.
And so Jill sent me off to makeher special appetizer.
And I went to the the marketdown in Newport Beach and was in
line and getting ready to checkout when a cart came up behind
(06:36):
me and bumped me and bumped mepretty hard.
And I I kind of whipped aroundthinking it was somebody that I
knew.
And uh I saw these, which Ifound out later, two brothers
and a sister.
And they had a kind of a scallylook on your face.
(06:56):
And I, you know, I looked downat their cart and I looked at
mine, and and my cart that I wasunloading was, you know, stuff
for food, and their cart wasthree gallons of vodka and
mixes, and so I I looked at themand said, thirsty.
(07:24):
And the sister like piped rightup.
She goes, Oh hell, family'sgetting together.
Only way we can get together isif we drink.
And I said, Well, you know, I'msure that uh celebration's fun,
but maybe maybe there's a betterway.
And she said, Well, I'm allears.
(07:46):
And the and the and the brothersweren't having much of it.
I looked uh at her and I said,You know, I found out that one
of the things that happens atThanksgiving is that people
who've not reconciled with oneanother during the year come
together on the holidays andthey still carry some hurt
(08:08):
between you and that otherperson.
And because it's not forgivenand it's not dealt with, you
sort of bring it to the partywith you.
For instance, how many of youcan see like a grumpy person
from a mile away?
You know, or somebody you see inthe in the store, and they got
(08:32):
this look on their face, andthey're not having anything.
And uh I don't meet too manygrummy people.
The other day I was actually inmy neighborhood, and it was was
just had an incredible day, andI was driving back on my street,
and and there was a gal walkingout there, and all of a sudden,
(08:55):
you know, I look I stopped and Isaid, Well, hey, sister, it was
a grandma, right?
And she's walking, she's got herheadphones on, and and so I
said, Hi, how are you doing?
She like, do I know you?
And I said, No, I just wanted totell you that Jesus loves you.
And I was like expecting, oh,thank you.
(09:16):
Oh, he loves you too, right?
But it wasn't her reaction.
Her reaction was buzz off.
I mean, she just screamed at thetop of her lung, buzz off.
And I went, my goodness, mygoodness.
Because you know, you're gonnameet people that are are just
(09:39):
really angry and broken.
And I looked at her, she'sscowling at me, and she realizes
she can't beat me up because I'mbigger than her.
And so I just looked at her andI said, He still loves you.
Have a great day.
She was not happy.
You know, it happens.
Sometimes you'll you come in andwant to love somebody and
(10:01):
they're just doing this to you.
So, what do you do?
How do you have a Thanksgivingthat you make a memory with your
children, with your relatives,and even with those people that
are sort of hard to get along?
Well, I'm gonna share with yousome things that I've learned.
And this is the here's thesecret to the whole thing.
(10:25):
It's about how you prepare yourown heart to go be with the
people that maybe are achallenge to you, even those
love.
At the end, I'm gonna share withyou a really special tradition
that we do in our family thatcompletely changes Thanksgiving.
And I can't wait to share withyou.
Before I get there, let's let'sgo to the the next slide here.
(10:50):
And and part of it is is, youknow, I'm gonna ask you once the
once's the last time you sawlike a great work of art, you
know, one of those things thatyou see and it's just you know,
like you go to a gallery orsomebody's home, and you just
you can't stop looking at itbecause it's of the color and
(11:14):
the shapes.
And you know, I have an artist'sheart, and I'm also an oil
painter.
And and so when I see art or Ior see clouds, you know, I just
kind of go, whoa, that and youknow, everything that's on a
canvas or uh or any kind ofmedium is a it's a it's a
reflection of light that goesoff of whatever this color of
(11:35):
that pigment is.
Those those pigments, likehere's one of my tubes of paint,
it it has there's no color.
This represents sort of what itmight be right here, but there's
no real color that's you knowthat you know that this has in
itself, paint by itself withoutlight, is is darkness.
(12:00):
But when light comes, it when ithits that painting a certain
way, whatever those colors are,it reflects off those colors,
goes back to your eyes, andbased on what those pigments
are, which come from the earthsomewhere or from chemicals that
they they put together, producessomething that's that's
(12:22):
beautiful.
And and I you know, I've hadthose times I remember seeing in
my first Monet in, you know, inin Washington, D.C.
and the different galleries I'vebeen to around the world.
And where you sat there, youwere kind of taken in by the
colors, right?
The the colors of thosepaintings, the the the thousands
(12:46):
of little strokes of of thepaintbrushes, trying, and then
you're there trying to discernthe story the artist is trying
to display.
Because in every in every greatwork of art, even in the great
work of art of you as a person,you have a story that God is
(13:08):
writing with your life tocommunicate to the people that
are around you.
And it's a powerful thing whenyou are able to connect with
that in your own life and anddisplay it, and and and with all
the colors that God wants todisplay through your life.
Welcome, Mark.
Way to join there, my friend.
(13:30):
And and so, you know, part ofwhat happens, you know, when
when we have you know art andthings that we do, is that, you
know, here's a here's here's oneof my paintings.
Maybe you've seen this, but thisis a painting that I did.
It's called this glory beckons,and it's it's a painting and a
(13:53):
vision that I had of what thepeople of Israel saw when they
first saw Mount Sinai.
And it's a really big painting.
It was a backdrop to our stage,and it's called its glory
beckons.
And you imagine going into thisvalley and seeing part of the
reflection in that pool that'sup on that mountain edge, and
(14:17):
then seeing this mountain.
And in that valley, over theBible says that over two million
people were, you know, campedout there.
I even put the rock there, youknow, in the background that has
a crack in it that split openand water came out.
But 2.1 million people werethere underneath that mountain
(14:39):
as Moses went up to get the TenCommandments.
You can almost hear CharltonHesson movie.
And so that painting, you know,is is it's all these different
colors there, but it's only apainting that can be seen if
there's light on it.
(15:00):
And it's the same way as yourlife.
There, there's a light on yourlife that comes from your life
that's a reflection of who youare as a person.
And so, what's that color that'scoming off of you?
And what we're talking aboutreally is the art of gratitude.
Because something happens whenyou get grateful as a person,
(15:21):
because there won't be darknessin you, there'll be light coming
out of you.
And you know, you might havesome people, like I did in my
neighborhood, who basically tellme to buzz off.
Oh, hey, there's my pastor, DaveKing, just showed up here.
Welcome, Dave.
He's awesome.
He he's he's an awesome uh manof God.
(15:42):
And uh, but uh welcome tonight.
And so something happens whenthe reflection of God's light,
you know, hits your life, andhe's painted these colors onto
your life that reflect the theglory and the revelation of
Jesus to the people who see yourlife.
(16:04):
It's the ultimate painting thatGod has is Christ in you, the
hope of glory.
And so if I were to ask you,what what is the painting of
your life look like?
I mean, what what is it, youknow, what is the art of
gratitude, but what is what doesyour painting look like?
And in the Bible, gratitudeactually means extending favor
(16:27):
towards or giving grace andkindness back in response.
For example, saying thank youdoesn't automatically means that
you're grateful.
You may be just saying it to bepolite.
Whereas thankfulness generallyacknowledges the the effort of
(16:54):
the person that you're gratefulfor.
And it goes on.
Gratitude for us is is is thefruit of a heart that's filled
with God's goodness and grace.
And when we've learned how toreceive God's goodness and grace
to our life, it it causes thisresponse in us.
(17:16):
It causes this response in us toto show gratefulness and how we
live back towards God.
We're incredibly gratefulbecause of all the places that
he's forgiven us.
You want to see the mostgrateful person in the world is
is not the person with the mostmoney and and the person that
(17:39):
has the most stuff and and andevery and hits all of his goals.
The the most grateful person inthe world is the person who was
really broken, and God's come inand changed your story.
And your response is not justthank you, God, but I give my
(18:03):
life back to you, and I'm gonnabe grateful towards you in
everything I do.
Because how can I possibly repayyou for all the good you have
done towards me?
See, that's the heart ofgratefulness.
It's in a real sense, it's theart of gratefulness on your
(18:28):
life.
It's you know, it's really Godshowing gratefulness in how you
live towards him.
You give your life back, you youbecause he saved your life.
You you reflect back to him andthe world, his goodness and and
his grace on your life.
(18:48):
You don't hold that back, youdon't hide it because you're so
grateful that he's given yousomething that there's no way
you deserved it or you earnedit.
And here I wrote this, you know,speaking from my artist's heart,
that the true colors of ourlives are are only seen by the
(19:09):
light of the revelation of Jesusand his goodness towards us.
You know, the more I um spendtime with the Lord, the more I
spend time in his goodness andconfession and and reading his
word and and following him anduh and obeying him, which is
(19:35):
part of my gratefulness back toGod.
It's it's an act of of beinggrateful when you obey him and
you do things that you don'twant to do.
You do it because he's given youso much.
(19:56):
And I think sometimes during theholidays we we forget that we
really are who we are based onhow much of God's love and light
and and and hope and grace hascome towards us.
Because that gives us acapacity.
Now, hear me when I say this, itgives us a capacity to love
(20:17):
people the same way he loved us.
And by the way, there is nothingbetter than that in life.
It gives you the capacity tolove those that are hard to love
at Thanksgiving, gives you thecapacity to love your children
when they're disappointing you,or your spouse, or your
(20:39):
boyfriend, or your girlfriend,or your boss.
It's the ability to quicklyforgive and quickly let go of
the hurt because you realizethat there's nobody on earth
that can sin against you to thesame level that you and I have
(20:59):
sinned against God.
And so the only response to justthe gratitude we have is that we
show it to people that have hurtus.
It's one of the most powerfulexamples of being a light to
your community and the peoplethat you love, is that you love
people who don't like you, ormaybe even people who have
(21:23):
declared themselves your enemy.
That's why Jesus said, Do goodto those who persecute you.
Do good to those whodespitefully use you.
For great is your reward inheaven.
Something happens when we learnand to receive that for
ourselves and learn to give thatto our kids.
(21:48):
Well, this this goes on, and Iwant to share a couple of verses
with you that will kind of tiethis together.
And so I just want to ask you inyour life, if your life is a
work of art, then what are thecolors and images people see in
your life?
Do they see gratitude ondisplay, or are you still
(22:10):
getting even?
Or are you still trying to workyour salvation out kind of your
own way, and you're angry atyourself?
Gratitude's your way.
Check this out, this verse.
It starts here in two parts ofthis.
Let the message of Christ dwellamong you richly as you teach
(22:34):
and admonish one another withall wisdom through psalms,
hymns, songs from the Spirit,singing to God with gratitude in
your hearts.
Gosh, I love that.
We do all these things, youknow, even when we're teaching
somebody or loving or correctingsomebody, you know, we do it
(22:55):
with all wisdom, with the samegentleness that God's done it
towards us.
With Psalms, David wrote thePsalms after during his
struggles with the Lord.
And when you read it, God breaksthrough in those psalms when
he's going through one day,he's, and though I walk through
(23:15):
the valley of the shadow ofdeath, I will fear no evil.
For you know, you're with me,your rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
I mean, it it's this picturethat David's walking through
these and crouching enemiesaround him, but he looks to the
Lord and he's grateful to theLord who's there to rescue him,
(23:37):
which is so powerful and potentfor us, especially in a day
where bitterness has become thethe the fruit of the world.
You know, being grateful in yourheart.
He goes on the next part of thisverse I love in there in
Colossians, and whatever you do,whatever you do, whether in woo
(24:03):
word or deed, do it all in thename of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father throughhim.
So, whatever you do, in word ordeed, do it all in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
When you wake up in the in thein the morning, do you do you
(24:24):
kind of declare that overyourself that today, whatever
I'm doing, I'm gonna do this sothat Jesus is seen and
celebrated, and everybody knowshe must have risen from the dead
if Ed is saved.
(24:47):
If there's anything that's goodthat comes out of me, it's not
because I'm somehow a superiorhuman being than anybody else.
The only way that anything goodcomes out of me is because it's
a reflection of the light ofChrist off of those things he's
(25:08):
deposited in my heart.
And when we put on gratitude andwe're thankful to the Lord, and
the light of Christ shines offof you and you reflect back, the
world sees your life as amasterpiece, a thing to behold.
(25:31):
I I've met some amazing saints,you know, you know, one of my
favorite people in the wholeworld is Carol Wimber.
Now, you might not know her inher name.
Carol is the wife of JohnWimber.
She's remarried now.
John's in heaven and thefounder.
But when when I'm around her andshe looks at me, I I feel like
(26:00):
Jesus is looking at me.
You ever had people like that inyour life where they just they
just emanate this presence andthis love and because they've
yielded their life to him andmade it their mission of their
(26:22):
life to receive from him overand over again.
And if she's an older saint nowand getting ready for heaven,
and and yet she was fashioned inher life by going through so
many hard things, and uh in thew having to bury one of her
(26:45):
sons, and you know, struggling,you know, in with make being a
pastor's wife, and and so sheshe lives one of the most
anointed, marvelous lives I Ithink of anybody I ever met.
And when I when I get around, Ilove getting around her.
She's at church on every Sunday,sitting there, and and she's got
(27:09):
the sweetest smile on her face.
And I know that if you're one ofher kids, she probably had
moments when it wasn't so sweet,but you can tell that when
you're around a saint like that,the reflection off of her life
is this reflection of gratitudefor everything that God has
done.
(27:32):
Even even in having to bury yourhusband earlier than she
anticipated, and being a part ofseeing God move all over the
world in extraordinary waysthrough the vineyard movement.
Even with all that, she's stilltender because she gives her
(27:52):
heart every day to beinggrateful.
Even in the midst of growingolder and her body not quite
working.
I don't know about you, but I Iwant to end my story like that.
I'm gonna end my story with theLord feeling like I'm finishing
(28:12):
my race and I'm looking forwardto being with him.
But then when people get aroundme, crisis scene.
How about you?
What's the the reflection thatcomes off of your life?
He wants to he wants otherpeople to see him.
(28:34):
Let's go on.
A few more thoughts.
Thanks for hanging with me.
You know, like the color ofpaint to the is to the artist.
Now I'm talking artists speak,okay?
So if you're not an artist, butyou've been a little kid.
You know, one of the things thatwas fascinating about uh read a
great article this past weekabout why kids like art so much.
(28:58):
And probably why you did.
You might not have thought youwere very good, but when you're
little, when my grandkids comeover, they're not they're not
like uh trying to, you know,paint the Mona Lisa.
You know, they're they're theyjust they're trying to tell a
story.
And matter of fact, I'll showyou, I'll show you something
that if I can find it here.
(29:20):
Yeah, let me pull this up here.
I'm gonna brag on one of mylittle grannies came over.
Here's a here's a here's acouple of uh shots.
I want to I want to show yousome of my incredible artwork in
my life.
Well, here's uh here's mygrandson and I.
(29:43):
Is that like a great picture ofwhat?
One of my tooth fell fell outand he lost his.
And we were like twins.
Is that just like the greatest,you know?
And in here's two of my otherworks of art here.
On the beach, having Coca-Liciusand Ani.
(30:04):
You know, they're justincredible.
Think about your family andeveryone else and those and
those hugs that you can younever get back, you know, the
those ones with your childrenthat mean so much as you come
together at this Thanksgiving.
Well, I promise you a piece ofartwork.
Let me show it to you.
Here's my granddaughter whodecided she was going to paint a
(30:29):
picture about this whale.
And that's her first, you know,watercolor kind of thing of her
with a with a whale.
And she's good, isn't she?
And I asked her about this.
And I said, so what?
Well, tell me this story.
He goes, Oh, he's a he was a biglonely whale that likes to jump
(30:52):
out of the water and leteverybody see how beautiful and
how big he is.
And see, that that's the way,that's the way kids do artwork.
They tell stories.
And as you get older, you startrealizing you're not, you don't
think you're that good as anartist, because I don't think
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art's a gift.
I I think it's a a lifelongdiscipline of learning.
But the creative part abouttelling stories with your art is
one of the most profound andpowerful things that you can
discover as an adult.
That's why a lot of people I'vebeen meeting are doing artwork,
yours truly.
And so part of this verse, thisnext section here is that if
(31:43):
like the color of paint is tothe artist, gratitude is the
color that becomes.
Now, listen to my words here.
I wrote them specifically, acontagious becomes contagious to
people whose life reflectsbitterness more than gratitude.
Something can happen in a familyin a life when a person that's
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that's reflecting God's color ofgratitude out of his life
towards people that are aroundhim.
Where you're loving them, whenyou're blessing them, when
you're you're not going, ohgreat, auntie's here.
You're you're speaking life.
That's incredibly powerful.
And the the words, your wordsand the way you love God and are
(32:31):
the colors that make this yourheart of yours grateful.
And so if you want to be able toreally impact your family this
holiday time, don't just praythat that you know, God, you
know, my auntie's coming over,and you know, Lord, she's a
(32:55):
crazy person, or or this person,or this family member.
But why don't you step back justa little bit and spend some time
asking yourself the question,how gr what is the color that
comes off of my life?
Because you know, I I meetChristians well-meaning who
(33:19):
think it's their job to correcteverybody who's not obeying
God's word.
Well, you know, the way you getsomebody to listen to you when
they're stuck in a hole is foryou not to be stuck in the same
hole because you have an opinionabout what you change in their
(33:43):
life, but you become the realarticle, like I was talking
about Carol Wimber.
You know, when she's when shespeaks, she gave me a word a
number of times in my story fromthe Lord, something she prayed
about.
And man, it just hit me, and itwas so good and so life-giving
(34:04):
to me, and it made me hungry formore.
That's what happens when youallow God to paint gratitude on
you, is one of your main colorsthat comes out of your heart,
and you're grateful to him forall that he's done, and you live
in this place of being sograteful that it unlocks the
(34:28):
gift of generosity where you aregenerous, loving people who
don't deserve to be loved.
Think about people that are inyour story that you've pushed
away, or kids that havedisappointed you.
(34:53):
How do you treat them when theyblow it?
Do you make them pay for it forfor months?
I mean, I used to do that.
I used to I used to be, youknow, really strong and hard
towards my kids, and and Godbegan to deal with that.
And you know, just a simplescripture, you know, that I'm
(35:18):
I'm supposed to forgive mychildren the same way God's
forgiven me.
That's completely in it.
When you learn to do that, andyou you learn to have a heart
towards people that are broken,like God has towards you,
because you're broken withouthim.
(35:40):
Is there anybody you can't spendtime with?
No.
And you can build relationshipswith people that that are even
completely on the oppositeperspective of of your political
party.
(36:01):
You know, I I had that happen tome on an airplane ride.
And my seat mate, uh we j end upjumping onto a new plane because
both of us figured out that ourplane had not mechanical, and so
we ran, you know, in the daysthat I could run.
(36:24):
I got on that escalator.
Let me say that.
I walked fast on an escalator.
It was like I was a pro athlete,once again.
And so we get on a plane, we sitdown, and we're talking, and and
so I looked at him and I and Ishared with him.
I said, So what what has Godmade you for?
(36:50):
I love asking that question.
And he goes, Well, it's likenobody's ever asked me that.
I said, Well, tell me what whatmakes your heart sing?
I mean, what what do you dothat's this you know, just
incredible that changes theworld?
And he goes, Well, I'm afundraiser.
(37:12):
I went, really?
And he goes, Yeah, I'm I I youknow, I helped raise about a
billion, not quite, but about abillion dollars to get Obama
like this present.
I went, wow.
That that's amazing.
And I he said, Well, well, well,who are you?
(37:34):
So I knew that God has kind ofset up a divine appointment with
me.
Welcome, Caleb and Klaus andFrank, and and another few guys
join tonight.
And I and I said to him, Well,I'm uh, and I I do this for just
striking off conversation, I'm aI'm a cultural revolutionary.
(37:59):
He he looks at me like, a what?
And he goes, are you a are you ademocrat?
I went, no.
He goes, oh, so you're one ofthem.
I go, well, what's one of them?
A Republican?
I said, no, I'm not aRepublican.
You're not a Republican?
(38:21):
Oh, so you're an independent.
So he's looking for anothervote, right?
I said, no, I'm not anindependent.
Well, well, who do you vote for?
And I said, so you don't have aparty?
I go, no, no.
Well, I'm part of a party.
It's a huge party, and it's gota king who's got a kingdom and
has a throne and his throne isout of this world, his name
(38:42):
Jesus.
He looks at me and he goes, Soyou're one of them?
I go, yeah, I'm exactly one ofthose guys.
Well, who do you vote for?
I said, I vote for the guythat's or the gal who's closest.
I said gal now, but it was guywhen I talked to him because
there wasn't a female runningfor president like we just had.
(39:05):
I said, I vote for the personthat's closest to the king that
I love and serve.
And they're really a far,they're really far off, but
there's somebody who could becloser.
And he just smiles at me.
And he says, So, but so tell me,what do you do?
You're not culturalrevolutionary.
I said, No, basically, God kindof sends me around.
(39:30):
I've been in many countriesaround the world doing events
for men and coaching men andhelping them.
And God brings me guys, maybe aguy like you, who's sold out for
a dream or a vision or a companyor something, and has lost the
(39:50):
heart of his children.
And he wants them back.
And I mean to tell you, it waslike a holy bomb went off
between me and this guy, andthat we really had no real
political connection.
And he didn't see me as theopposite party, but a guy who
(40:12):
gave him a word, and he starts,he wasn't weeping, but he was
teary-eyed.
He turned away, looked out thewindow.
He was at the window seat, andthen he heard back.
He goes, Can you help me?
You know, I've lost the heart ofmy daughter.
I've been so involved inpolitics and business that I'd
(40:36):
do anything to get her back.
And I say, Well, you're you'resitting next to a guy who's had
to learn how to do that with myown kids.
I was sold out playing football.
Then ministry for a while, and Istarted losing my kids.
(40:56):
And he said, What do I do?
And I I shared the love of Jesuswith this guy.
And we had the most amazingconversation.
And I prayed with him at theend, and he asked Christ in his
life, and and just, I mean, wecouldn't really hug, you know,
(41:17):
there wasn't enough room, but hewas just shook by the love of
God that came from a broken guylike me, who loved this guy that
was in front of me.
So we were getting ready toleave the airplane, and I
grabbed this bag for him and hadmine.
(41:38):
And there were people around usthat were sort of looking at me.
I could tell they maybe werelistening to the conversation,
and he looks at me and goes, youknow, don't take this wrong, but
I've never met anybody like you.
And I smiled at him and I said,Well, maybe you're hanging
(42:00):
around the wrong group.
I said, Sir, there are millionsand millions of men like me who
build a ladder to our dreams andstarted losing our families.
And this guy named Jesus came inour stories and turned us
(42:23):
around.
And he said, I'm gonna find achurch and I'm gonna do, I'm
gonna read your book.
I gave him my book.
I love that story, and but uh,you know what I love more is
that God filled me withgratitude for a guy who was just
(42:46):
on the way, and so that maybewe're was far off from him.
I mean, how many of you, youknow, have a family member who's
could really use something thisholiday time from you?
And so, how do you do that?
I'm gonna just share one morescripture with you, and then
(43:11):
something that you could do atThanksgiving that could make an
incredible difference for yourfamily if you've never done
this.
And it'll it'll make yourThanksgiving the best
Thanksgiving you have ever beenat, and it will have very little
to do with the food, but it'llhave something to do with
(43:34):
something that you do ingratitude with Jesus.
Well, here it is.
It says in the Thessalonians,rejoice always, pray
continually, give thanks in allcircumstances, for this is God's
(43:55):
will for you in Christ.
There's something that happenswhen you turn your grumbling
into rejoicing.
And the reason we rejoice is wedon't rejoice in our failure, we
don't rejoice in necessarily inour things, but we rejoice in
the Lord.
(44:15):
We're constantly praising himand living to thank him for all
the things he's done for us.
We're praying continually, we'rewe're having this conversation
all the time.
Lord, what are you doing?
And that's something you do atThanksgiving.
Father, what are you doing withwith those that are around me?
(44:37):
How do I reach my son that'shere, my daughter that's here?
How do I reach my wife?
How do I serve her?
How do I do what I need to do?
You're constantly connected.
So you're rejoicing, you'reconnecting, and at the same time
you're doing that, you're givingthanks for all that he's done.
You're being grateful, no matterwhat your circumstances are, no
(45:02):
matter what your circumstancesare, because the Bible says this
is God's will for you in ChristJesus.
See, God knows when we rejoiceand pray and give thanks, we
live a whole different day.
When's the last time you you hada day like that?
Well, you're you're rejoicingabout everything.
(45:24):
People think you're a littlecrazy.
Well, I rejoice in the Lord andwho he is.
I pray to him and his answersbecause I go through hard things
just like you.
I get pressed down, I getdepressed, I I get I go through
hard things just like all of usdo, but we can focus on the hard
(45:47):
things and start grumbling andmumbling.
And the next thing you know,we've talked ourselves into a
really good depression.
Anybody ever do that?
I can't tell you how many timesI've blown that in my life.
But when I open myself to justback into that scripture and and
I'm rejoicing, I'm rejoicing inwho God is.
(46:10):
That's how you rejoice.
And I'm praying and trusting hisprovision and answers to those
things that are impossible.
And I'm thanking him in allthose circumstances, and even
thanking him for the people he'sbringing to my house at
Thanksgiving that doesn't likeme very much.
Or maybe you don't like them.
(46:30):
Maybe this is the Thanksgivingwhere you change all of that.
And you can change theatmosphere that you're in if you
do this.
(46:52):
And and part of this comes from,I call this, you know, sharing
the art of gratitude thisThanksgiving.
And let me tell you, tell me howtell you how this started.
Started many years ago in one ofour Thanksgivings, where my son
Edward kind of took a cue fromme because of me really focusing
(47:19):
in on being grateful, but lovingmy children all the time, even
when they've blown it.
I'm speaking life into them, I'mloving them, I'm I'm doing
everything that I can to be thebest fathers.
God's fathering me.
And you know, the art of my lifeis starting to rub off on them,
and and is I is I'm doing allthose kind of things.
(47:40):
And so we're sitting down andwe've we've killed the fatted
beasts, we're sitting around theturkey.
And my son says, Hey dad, whydon't we go around the table?
And and one by one, everybodygets to pick one person and tell
everybody else at the table whatyou love about that person.
(48:05):
And I mean to tell you, it wasamazing.
And he goes, I'm gonna start,and then he blesses me as a son.
Of course, I'm weeping, and thegratitude that God has put in
(48:26):
him and his own gratitudetowards me as his father just
came out of those words as heblessed me.
Then I blessed someone, andJessica did, and Jill did, and
Mary did, and Lucas did, andJoshua did, and all around our
table we blessed one or motherand use this line.
(48:49):
Have I told you this is what I'mgonna tell you something.
This is what I love about you,and I am so grateful.
And it's talking about realthings you see in them that you
love.
And let me tell you, it cancompletely change the a person
when you speak life into themthat maybe is living in
(49:11):
darkness.
Maybe you have a family memberthat's struggling and everyone's
afraid of talking aboutsomething.
What would happen if you beganto talk about what you love
about them, not about theirpolitical differences or about
this or about that?
We say, hey, let's not talkabout politics, and then people
think that that's the magicformula.
(49:32):
And no, the magic formula islet's talk about something that
gives life, and that's what youlove about that person that's in
front of you.
Because how do you do it?
God fills you with that art ofgratitude.
He paints the gratitude in youbecause you're you're so you
just so grateful for what he'sdone is you got to tell
(49:55):
everybody about it.
And the best way you can do thatis practice telling that person
in front of you how much youlove them and what you love
about them.
Well, you might say, Well, I gotsome people that I couldn't do
that with.
Well, probably have to forgivethem first.
(50:15):
So you might have to privatelygo, Lord, I choose to forgive
them because I don't like themright now, and say, Lord, show
me something to bless thisrelative that's in front of me.
And I mean to tell you, God willdo a miracle.
I mean, I had a miracle happento me.
And it happened with my AuntBarbara that I love so much, but
(50:39):
we were kind of separated.
She she had kind of her storyliving my my mother's sister.
And, you know, the family, youknow, the family, you know, as
it happens, you can get verypolitical.
And next thing you know, you'veseparated people that God wants
you to love.
(51:00):
Through politics, throughelected people.
And elections are important andthey have consequences.
But what's more important is youcan do more good by being a
light for Jesus in the worldthan the greatest president of
(51:20):
all time.
Imagine if we all did that andand lived in this incredible
gratefulness and begin to blessone another.
Because something happens whenblessing comes from your lips
towards another person.
(51:41):
It catches them off guard.
And I'm gonna end with thestory, going a little bit long
on this, but it's just it's suchan important thing.
I I'm gonna do my best incommunicating it to you, and
then we're gonna pray at theend.
But I I I began to learn this,and it took me years to to
relearn.
How many of you have learned thesame lesson from God like 10
(52:03):
times?
Maybe 20 times.
You'll need to raise your handsout there.
And uh I had this player on myfootball team on the on the
Giants, and in the kind of theway of our team in the beginning
of the season was when, youknow, as many NFL locker rooms,
(52:25):
you're sitting on your stool,guys are chewing skull or
getting ready for practice orhaving their favorite drink and
putting their pads on.
And there was a player fromAlabama, a defensive player that
I practice against all the time,that would make fun of me as I
walked into the locker room.
(52:45):
And he'd just make fun of me.
And everybody'd laughed.
And my my neck name was likeReverend Ed.
Why do you think they gave methat thing?
Because I made it my goal beinga football player on that team,
more than winning the SuperBowl, to love those guys so that
they might encounter Jesus.
(53:06):
Because having a lot of moneyand fame without Jesus, you're
gonna be a mess.
I don't care who you are.
With Jesus, you'll be like someof these young quarterbacks
today in the end zone, taking aknee before they play and then
after the game.
Love those guys.
That's who I vote for, by theway, as football players.
(53:29):
I vote for the Christians.
I just I root for so that theycould stand up and be a great
example to our young people,because so few of them have
loving dads right now.
And so here's Curtis, and hisname's Curtis McGriff.
And Curtis was he was poking funat me, and and so it would it
(53:51):
would bother me, and I and Iwould get into the banter, you
know, and and I would I'd giveit right back to them, and it'd
be kind of who's gonna make funof one another more than the
other.
But this day I walked in and Istarted, I was praying.
I said, God, show me how to lovethis guy.
And and so he he's sort ofmaking fun of me, and it and
(54:16):
it's all in Jess, but you know,even poking fun and Jess and the
family is hurtful.
I've done that.
And so he did what he, you know,he said some things, and
everyone goes, whoa, they'rewaiting for now.
What's that emac, what'sReverend Ed gonna do?
(54:36):
And the Lord just gave he justput this in me.
And it was just he said, I justsaid to him, you know, Curtis,
you know what I love about youand I mean the whole tenor of
the room just begins to change,and they're all looking at me
like, what are you doing?
(54:58):
I said, I love I love that everytime I practice against you,
Curtis, you give your best.
And you're you're a greatfootball player, you're an
incredibly talented defensivetackle.
And I have to, I have to beyondmy game working just as hard as
(55:22):
you, and you make me a betterplayer every single day, every
single snap.
And if we had more guys like youon our team, and we had that
same intensity as Curtis does, Ithink we'd go to the playoffs
for the first time in 17 years.
(55:42):
And I mean, everybody was like,Whoa.
And it was just quiet, and then,yeah, yeah, that's right, man.
Curtis is, and it's sort of it'ssort of people started, yeah,
you're that way too.
And I mean, we were likebanishing off one another,
encouraging one another.
(56:02):
And so we're getting ready to goout to practice, and Curtis
comes by me and gets in front ofme, and he's a hawk, man.
He's a big, strong, incredibleathlete from the University of
Alabama.
And he looks at me and he goes,Man, thank you for that.
(56:23):
And nobody nobody speaks to methat way.
Thank you.
That meant a lot to me.
I'm really sorry I've beenfunning you, but you're a great
player too.
And I smile down and I said,Curtis says, let's go, let's go
stir these guys up and go to theplayoffs.
And you know what?
(56:44):
Our whole team began to shift.
Now, I'm not saying it happenedbecause of that moment, but that
locker room changed that day.
So I want you as you approachThanksgiving, I want you to
begin, I want you to pray foreverybody who's come into your
(57:05):
house.
Write their names down, peopleyou're gonna be there with,
maybe you're going to Auntie'shouse or somebody's house, and
ask God to show you somethingthat you admire about them that
you could publicly in front ofeverybody tell them what you
(57:26):
love about them and bless them.
You're gonna be like a match todry kindling and just begin to
bless one another.
Because there is nothing morepowerful in the whole world, in
(57:47):
my opinion, than a broken guywho learns how to use his lips
not to blame other people, butto bless them the same way that
God blesses us.
And that's when we are the mostlike Christ.
So anyway, we're getting ready.
We we we we're running out oftime.
(58:08):
I actually have a coaching groupthat I'm gonna meet with in a
minute and 30 seconds.
Yours truly has becomelong-winded, but I want to give
this to you and pray for you.
And before we we get off ourprogram, I want to let you know
that a brand new thing is goingto be released here soon.
Just want to let you know.
Would love for you to be a partof it.
(58:30):
It's called the FatherhoodAcademy.
And we're launching this, andit's a way for that we empower
men to be the spiritualchampions and fathers their
family needs.
Maybe you know a guy or you wantto be one of those guys.
And if you'll just get a hold ofme and send me an email and say,
(58:51):
Ed, I want to find out aboutthis and I want to be a part of
this.
Uh, you can email me, you canconnect with me, and I would
just be be honored.
You can send me an email to EdChandy at blessing of the
father.com.
But you want to be a part ofthis, this launch.
Maybe you're in a place whereyou could become a partner to
(59:14):
help us launch this because wehave some modules and things
that we need to invest in to beable to really present a
powerful thing for our studentsthat are going to be coming,
men, broken men, businessmen,leaders.
Uh, we have a module forchurches and podcasts, a lot of
(59:36):
stuff.
I'll let you know more aboutthat next week.
But before I get off, let'spray.
Father, I thank you for myfriends that are watching.
I am so grateful to be with thembefore Thanksgiving.
And I pray that you wouldconnect them to your gratitude
and they would have the bestThanksgiving they've ever had.
(59:58):
I pray for healing.
In relationships, I pray youwould bring them together and do
something profound in them.
Do something profound in them asthey connect to you.
And maybe you've been far awayfrom Jesus.
Well, all you got to do is say,Jesus, I'm I want to come back.
I want you to work thatgratitude in my own heart.
(01:00:20):
I'm tired of being bitter.
I'm tired of being alone.
I'm tired of being mad.
I want to learn to be grateful,to bless other people this
Thanksgiving in my family, in mylife.
And so, Lord, I pray for mybrothers and sisters.
I pray you would bless theirtimes.
I pray you would expand them ina powerful way.
(01:00:43):
Expand them, Lord.
Use them, Lord, and give themthe best Thanksgiving other in
the name of Jesus.
And all God's people said, Amen.
Well, I want one minute over.
I got another group waiting onme.
I gotta go.
But if you're interested infinding out more about what
we're doing, uh, you can go tomy website at
(01:01:06):
thefatherdifference.com andconnect there.
You could even find out aboutour academy there.
And uh, we even have a specialdeal right now.
You do not want to miss it.
I can't tell you it's toospecial.
And I will see you next week, onnext Tuesday, and next Thursday
(01:01:26):
for you gals that came in.
Remember, the father loves youand he gave his son to let you
know.
Thank you for being here.
I am so grateful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ava, welcome.
I'm looking forward to tonight.
So we got things.
SPEAKER_00 (00:39):
What kind of father do you want to be?
What kind of man do you want tobecome for your family and for
yourself?
If you've ever wondered how tostep into the fullness of your
role as a father, husband, andman of God, then you're in the
right place.
Here at the Father Difference,our mission is to inspire and
equip men to be the best fathersthey can be.
(01:01):
It's a powerful mission.
And today, we're going toexplore exactly how you can take
steps toward that calling.
Whether you're a father, a son,a husband, grandfather, single
dad, stepfather, or just lookingto grow, I believe God has
something powerful for you intoday's message.
(01:21):
Whether you're tuning in live orwatching this later, we are so
excited to have you here.
If this is what you're lookingfor, then subscribe so you can
tune in each week to the FatherDifference Live.
You can sign up below.
And now your host, a husband,father, grandfather, author, and
(01:42):
former NFL player, Pastor EdMcLasson.
SPEAKER_01 (01:53):
Hey, well, welcome.
Uh, we are just a couple of daysaway from Turkey Day.
And tonight we're gonna talkabout just this that the art of
gratitude.
And what does that look like?
Uh, welcome, a bunch of guys uhjoining from all over the place,
(02:14):
a number of different places.
Welcome to Rumble and Instagram,Hogan, G Fowl, uh Jordo there,
Mr.
Kennedy.
Welcome here tonight at the Artof Gratitude.
I'm your host, Ed TanyaMcGlassen, and we're gonna talk
tonight about really the art ofgratitude and how to get into
(02:35):
that place as a man, a husband.
We've actually invited some galsto join us tonight because we
normally have a Thursday nightgroup, and but it's
Thanksgiving, and we're allgonna have trichtopane poisoning
and be laying on our couchesduring right after the
(02:55):
Thanksgiving meal.
Anybody have those stories thathave happened in your life?
So grateful that you're here.
Love your comments, questions.
You can do that.
And so I want to get right intowhat we're gonna talk about
tonight, and really about theart of gratitude and really what
does that mean in our lives, andhow do we get into that place
(03:20):
where we can really connect withour family, our kids, our wife,
this Thanksgiving?
Because we can eat eat themeals, and and it's so, you
know, it's a typical kind ofscenario that there's a lot of
uh hesitation by family membersbecause of certain people at
(03:42):
Thanksgiving dinner.
Oh, I had some whopperThanksgiving dinners in my
family growing up.
How about you?
And you know, I you know, I Iremember so many of those
memories that, you know, couldhave really turned out badly,
(04:02):
but learned how to how to reallybegin to understand how to love
that person that's across fromyou.
And plus, we got the addeddimension of people who are, you
know, really upset about theelection and you know, the uh
brainiacs and the media and in acertain party were actually
(04:25):
telling family members to notspend the holidays with their
family members if they voted forTrump.
So sad.
So little.
Those newscatchers don't live inour homes, and they don't know
about the power of forgivenessand how we can build lives
(04:47):
together.
So, we're gonna talk about howdo we kind of enter into this
thing that in my title tonight,The Art of Gratitude.
So, when you think aboutgratitude, what do you think
about?
Somebody who's grateful, right?
Somebody who's that thanks you alot for everything.
(05:07):
Is that really the gratitudethat that's sustainable in our
life?
Because it's really hard tothank somebody if you don't feel
very thankful.
And, you know, and and peopleare struggling.
And so tonight we're gonna dothat.
And this the subtitle of our uhuh time together is having a
wonderful Thanksgiving despitefamily drama.
(05:32):
Anybody have family drama whereyou know people are just like,
you know, they're coming over.
Oh, there's one of my friends,Kelly Lawley, one of the best
real estate people I know inSouthern California.
Get a shout out to her.
You want her to sell your houseso you can move to Tennessee and
buy a mansion.
(05:54):
A lot of people seem to be doingthat these days.
Well, not us.
We love California.
And so I want to start out by afunny story that happened a
couple Thanksgivings ago.
I was at the market here gettingmy last-minute Thanksgiving
(06:14):
items.
You know, you know the ones youforget and you got to rush out
before people come over.
And so Jill sent me off to makeher special appetizer.
And I went to the the marketdown in Newport Beach and was in
line and getting ready to checkout when a cart came up behind
(06:36):
me and bumped me and bumped mepretty hard.
And I I kind of whipped aroundthinking it was somebody that I
knew.
And uh I saw these, which Ifound out later, two brothers
and a sister.
And they had a kind of a scallylook on your face.
(06:56):
And I, you know, I looked downat their cart and I looked at
mine, and and my cart that I wasunloading was, you know, stuff
for food, and their cart wasthree gallons of vodka and
mixes, and so I I looked at themand said, thirsty.
(07:24):
And the sister like piped rightup.
She goes, Oh hell, family'sgetting together.
Only way we can get together isif we drink.
And I said, Well, you know, I'msure that uh celebration's fun,
but maybe maybe there's a betterway.
And she said, Well, I'm allears.
(07:46):
And the and the and the brothersweren't having much of it.
I looked uh at her and I said,You know, I found out that one
of the things that happens atThanksgiving is that people
who've not reconciled with oneanother during the year come
together on the holidays andthey still carry some hurt
(08:08):
between you and that otherperson.
And because it's not forgivenand it's not dealt with, you
sort of bring it to the partywith you.
For instance, how many of youcan see like a grumpy person
from a mile away?
You know, or somebody you see inthe in the store, and they got
(08:32):
this look on their face, andthey're not having anything.
And uh I don't meet too manygrummy people.
The other day I was actually inmy neighborhood, and it was was
just had an incredible day, andI was driving back on my street,
and and there was a gal walkingout there, and all of a sudden,
(08:55):
you know, I look I stopped and Isaid, Well, hey, sister, it was
a grandma, right?
And she's walking, she's got herheadphones on, and and so I
said, Hi, how are you doing?
She like, do I know you?
And I said, No, I just wanted totell you that Jesus loves you.
And I was like expecting, oh,thank you.
(09:16):
Oh, he loves you too, right?
But it wasn't her reaction.
Her reaction was buzz off.
I mean, she just screamed at thetop of her lung, buzz off.
And I went, my goodness, mygoodness.
Because you know, you're gonnameet people that are are just
(09:39):
really angry and broken.
And I looked at her, she'sscowling at me, and she realizes
she can't beat me up because I'mbigger than her.
And so I just looked at her andI said, He still loves you.
Have a great day.
She was not happy.
You know, it happens.
Sometimes you'll you come in andwant to love somebody and
(10:01):
they're just doing this to you.
So, what do you do?
How do you have a Thanksgivingthat you make a memory with your
children, with your relatives,and even with those people that
are sort of hard to get along?
Well, I'm gonna share with yousome things that I've learned.
And this is the here's thesecret to the whole thing.
(10:25):
It's about how you prepare yourown heart to go be with the
people that maybe are achallenge to you, even those
love.
At the end, I'm gonna share withyou a really special tradition
that we do in our family thatcompletely changes Thanksgiving.
And I can't wait to share withyou.
Before I get there, let's let'sgo to the the next slide here.
(10:50):
And and part of it is is, youknow, I'm gonna ask you once the
once's the last time you sawlike a great work of art, you
know, one of those things thatyou see and it's just you know,
like you go to a gallery orsomebody's home, and you just
you can't stop looking at itbecause it's of the color and
(11:14):
the shapes.
And you know, I have an artist'sheart, and I'm also an oil
painter.
And and so when I see art or Ior see clouds, you know, I just
kind of go, whoa, that and youknow, everything that's on a
canvas or uh or any kind ofmedium is a it's a it's a
reflection of light that goesoff of whatever this color of
(11:35):
that pigment is.
Those those pigments, likehere's one of my tubes of paint,
it it has there's no color.
This represents sort of what itmight be right here, but there's
no real color that's you knowthat you know that this has in
itself, paint by itself withoutlight, is is darkness.
(12:00):
But when light comes, it when ithits that painting a certain
way, whatever those colors are,it reflects off those colors,
goes back to your eyes, andbased on what those pigments
are, which come from the earthsomewhere or from chemicals that
they they put together, producessomething that's that's
(12:22):
beautiful.
And and I you know, I've hadthose times I remember seeing in
my first Monet in, you know, inin Washington, D.C.
and the different galleries I'vebeen to around the world.
And where you sat there, youwere kind of taken in by the
colors, right?
The the colors of thosepaintings, the the the thousands
(12:46):
of little strokes of of thepaintbrushes, trying, and then
you're there trying to discernthe story the artist is trying
to display.
Because in every in every greatwork of art, even in the great
work of art of you as a person,you have a story that God is
(13:08):
writing with your life tocommunicate to the people that
are around you.
And it's a powerful thing whenyou are able to connect with
that in your own life and anddisplay it, and and and with all
the colors that God wants todisplay through your life.
Welcome, Mark.
Way to join there, my friend.
(13:30):
And and so, you know, part ofwhat happens, you know, when
when we have you know art andthings that we do, is that, you
know, here's a here's here's oneof my paintings.
Maybe you've seen this, but thisis a painting that I did.
It's called this glory beckons,and it's it's a painting and a
(13:53):
vision that I had of what thepeople of Israel saw when they
first saw Mount Sinai.
And it's a really big painting.
It was a backdrop to our stage,and it's called its glory
beckons.
And you imagine going into thisvalley and seeing part of the
reflection in that pool that'sup on that mountain edge, and
(14:17):
then seeing this mountain.
And in that valley, over theBible says that over two million
people were, you know, campedout there.
I even put the rock there, youknow, in the background that has
a crack in it that split openand water came out.
But 2.1 million people werethere underneath that mountain
(14:39):
as Moses went up to get the TenCommandments.
You can almost hear CharltonHesson movie.
And so that painting, you know,is is it's all these different
colors there, but it's only apainting that can be seen if
there's light on it.
(15:00):
And it's the same way as yourlife.
There, there's a light on yourlife that comes from your life
that's a reflection of who youare as a person.
And so, what's that color that'scoming off of you?
And what we're talking aboutreally is the art of gratitude.
Because something happens whenyou get grateful as a person,
(15:21):
because there won't be darknessin you, there'll be light coming
out of you.
And you know, you might havesome people, like I did in my
neighborhood, who basically tellme to buzz off.
Oh, hey, there's my pastor, DaveKing, just showed up here.
Welcome, Dave.
He's awesome.
He he's he's an awesome uh manof God.
(15:42):
And uh, but uh welcome tonight.
And so something happens whenthe reflection of God's light,
you know, hits your life, andhe's painted these colors onto
your life that reflect the theglory and the revelation of
Jesus to the people who see yourlife.
(16:04):
It's the ultimate painting thatGod has is Christ in you, the
hope of glory.
And so if I were to ask you,what what is the painting of
your life look like?
I mean, what what is it, youknow, what is the art of
gratitude, but what is what doesyour painting look like?
And in the Bible, gratitudeactually means extending favor
(16:27):
towards or giving grace andkindness back in response.
For example, saying thank youdoesn't automatically means that
you're grateful.
You may be just saying it to bepolite.
Whereas thankfulness generallyacknowledges the the effort of
(16:54):
the person that you're gratefulfor.
And it goes on.
Gratitude for us is is is thefruit of a heart that's filled
with God's goodness and grace.
And when we've learned how toreceive God's goodness and grace
to our life, it it causes thisresponse in us.
(17:16):
It causes this response in us toto show gratefulness and how we
live back towards God.
We're incredibly gratefulbecause of all the places that
he's forgiven us.
You want to see the mostgrateful person in the world is
is not the person with the mostmoney and and the person that
(17:39):
has the most stuff and and andevery and hits all of his goals.
The the most grateful person inthe world is the person who was
really broken, and God's come inand changed your story.
And your response is not justthank you, God, but I give my
(18:03):
life back to you, and I'm gonnabe grateful towards you in
everything I do.
Because how can I possibly repayyou for all the good you have
done towards me?
See, that's the heart ofgratefulness.
It's in a real sense, it's theart of gratefulness on your
(18:28):
life.
It's you know, it's really Godshowing gratefulness in how you
live towards him.
You give your life back, you youbecause he saved your life.
You you reflect back to him andthe world, his goodness and and
his grace on your life.
(18:48):
You don't hold that back, youdon't hide it because you're so
grateful that he's given yousomething that there's no way
you deserved it or you earnedit.
And here I wrote this, you know,speaking from my artist's heart,
that the true colors of ourlives are are only seen by the
(19:09):
light of the revelation of Jesusand his goodness towards us.
You know, the more I um spendtime with the Lord, the more I
spend time in his goodness andconfession and and reading his
word and and following him anduh and obeying him, which is
(19:35):
part of my gratefulness back toGod.
It's it's an act of of beinggrateful when you obey him and
you do things that you don'twant to do.
You do it because he's given youso much.
(19:56):
And I think sometimes during theholidays we we forget that we
really are who we are based onhow much of God's love and light
and and and hope and grace hascome towards us.
Because that gives us acapacity.
Now, hear me when I say this, itgives us a capacity to love
(20:17):
people the same way he loved us.
And by the way, there is nothingbetter than that in life.
It gives you the capacity tolove those that are hard to love
at Thanksgiving, gives you thecapacity to love your children
when they're disappointing you,or your spouse, or your
(20:39):
boyfriend, or your girlfriend,or your boss.
It's the ability to quicklyforgive and quickly let go of
the hurt because you realizethat there's nobody on earth
that can sin against you to thesame level that you and I have
(20:59):
sinned against God.
And so the only response to justthe gratitude we have is that we
show it to people that have hurtus.
It's one of the most powerfulexamples of being a light to
your community and the peoplethat you love, is that you love
people who don't like you, ormaybe even people who have
(21:23):
declared themselves your enemy.
That's why Jesus said, Do goodto those who persecute you.
Do good to those whodespitefully use you.
For great is your reward inheaven.
Something happens when we learnand to receive that for
ourselves and learn to give thatto our kids.
(21:48):
Well, this this goes on, and Iwant to share a couple of verses
with you that will kind of tiethis together.
And so I just want to ask you inyour life, if your life is a
work of art, then what are thecolors and images people see in
your life?
Do they see gratitude ondisplay, or are you still
(22:10):
getting even?
Or are you still trying to workyour salvation out kind of your
own way, and you're angry atyourself?
Gratitude's your way.
Check this out, this verse.
It starts here in two parts ofthis.
Let the message of Christ dwellamong you richly as you teach
(22:34):
and admonish one another withall wisdom through psalms,
hymns, songs from the Spirit,singing to God with gratitude in
your hearts.
Gosh, I love that.
We do all these things, youknow, even when we're teaching
somebody or loving or correctingsomebody, you know, we do it
(22:55):
with all wisdom, with the samegentleness that God's done it
towards us.
With Psalms, David wrote thePsalms after during his
struggles with the Lord.
And when you read it, God breaksthrough in those psalms when
he's going through one day,he's, and though I walk through
(23:15):
the valley of the shadow ofdeath, I will fear no evil.
For you know, you're with me,your rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
I mean, it it's this picturethat David's walking through
these and crouching enemiesaround him, but he looks to the
Lord and he's grateful to theLord who's there to rescue him,
(23:37):
which is so powerful and potentfor us, especially in a day
where bitterness has become thethe the fruit of the world.
You know, being grateful in yourheart.
He goes on the next part of thisverse I love in there in
Colossians, and whatever you do,whatever you do, whether in woo
(24:03):
word or deed, do it all in thename of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father throughhim.
So, whatever you do, in word ordeed, do it all in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
When you wake up in the in thein the morning, do you do you
(24:24):
kind of declare that overyourself that today, whatever
I'm doing, I'm gonna do this sothat Jesus is seen and
celebrated, and everybody knowshe must have risen from the dead
if Ed is saved.
(24:47):
If there's anything that's goodthat comes out of me, it's not
because I'm somehow a superiorhuman being than anybody else.
The only way that anything goodcomes out of me is because it's
a reflection of the light ofChrist off of those things he's
(25:08):
deposited in my heart.
And when we put on gratitude andwe're thankful to the Lord, and
the light of Christ shines offof you and you reflect back, the
world sees your life as amasterpiece, a thing to behold.
(25:31):
I I've met some amazing saints,you know, you know, one of my
favorite people in the wholeworld is Carol Wimber.
Now, you might not know her inher name.
Carol is the wife of JohnWimber.
She's remarried now.
John's in heaven and thefounder.
But when when I'm around her andshe looks at me, I I feel like
(26:00):
Jesus is looking at me.
You ever had people like that inyour life where they just they
just emanate this presence andthis love and because they've
yielded their life to him andmade it their mission of their
(26:22):
life to receive from him overand over again.
And if she's an older saint nowand getting ready for heaven,
and and yet she was fashioned inher life by going through so
many hard things, and uh in thew having to bury one of her
(26:45):
sons, and you know, struggling,you know, in with make being a
pastor's wife, and and so sheshe lives one of the most
anointed, marvelous lives I Ithink of anybody I ever met.
And when I when I get around, Ilove getting around her.
She's at church on every Sunday,sitting there, and and she's got
(27:09):
the sweetest smile on her face.
And I know that if you're one ofher kids, she probably had
moments when it wasn't so sweet,but you can tell that when
you're around a saint like that,the reflection off of her life
is this reflection of gratitudefor everything that God has
done.
(27:32):
Even even in having to bury yourhusband earlier than she
anticipated, and being a part ofseeing God move all over the
world in extraordinary waysthrough the vineyard movement.
Even with all that, she's stilltender because she gives her
(27:52):
heart every day to beinggrateful.
Even in the midst of growingolder and her body not quite
working.
I don't know about you, but I Iwant to end my story like that.
I'm gonna end my story with theLord feeling like I'm finishing
(28:12):
my race and I'm looking forwardto being with him.
But then when people get aroundme, crisis scene.
How about you?
What's the the reflection thatcomes off of your life?
He wants to he wants otherpeople to see him.
(28:34):
Let's go on.
A few more thoughts.
Thanks for hanging with me.
You know, like the color ofpaint to the is to the artist.
Now I'm talking artists speak,okay?
So if you're not an artist, butyou've been a little kid.
You know, one of the things thatwas fascinating about uh read a
great article this past weekabout why kids like art so much.
(28:58):
And probably why you did.
You might not have thought youwere very good, but when you're
little, when my grandkids comeover, they're not they're not
like uh trying to, you know,paint the Mona Lisa.
You know, they're they're theyjust they're trying to tell a
story.
And matter of fact, I'll showyou, I'll show you something
that if I can find it here.
(29:20):
Yeah, let me pull this up here.
I'm gonna brag on one of mylittle grannies came over.
Here's a here's a here's acouple of uh shots.
I want to I want to show yousome of my incredible artwork in
my life.
Well, here's uh here's mygrandson and I.
(29:43):
Is that like a great picture ofwhat?
One of my tooth fell fell outand he lost his.
And we were like twins.
Is that just like the greatest,you know?
And in here's two of my otherworks of art here.
On the beach, having Coca-Liciusand Ani.
(30:04):
You know, they're justincredible.
Think about your family andeveryone else and those and
those hugs that you can younever get back, you know, the
those ones with your childrenthat mean so much as you come
together at this Thanksgiving.
Well, I promise you a piece ofartwork.
Let me show it to you.
Here's my granddaughter whodecided she was going to paint a
(30:29):
picture about this whale.
And that's her first, you know,watercolor kind of thing of her
with a with a whale.
And she's good, isn't she?
And I asked her about this.
And I said, so what?
Well, tell me this story.
He goes, Oh, he's a he was a biglonely whale that likes to jump
(30:52):
out of the water and leteverybody see how beautiful and
how big he is.
And see, that that's the way,that's the way kids do artwork.
They tell stories.
And as you get older, you startrealizing you're not, you don't
think you're that good as anartist, because I don't think
(31:14):
art's a gift.
I I think it's a a lifelongdiscipline of learning.
But the creative part abouttelling stories with your art is
one of the most profound andpowerful things that you can
discover as an adult.
That's why a lot of people I'vebeen meeting are doing artwork,
yours truly.
And so part of this verse, thisnext section here is that if
(31:43):
like the color of paint is tothe artist, gratitude is the
color that becomes.
Now, listen to my words here.
I wrote them specifically, acontagious becomes contagious to
people whose life reflectsbitterness more than gratitude.
Something can happen in a familyin a life when a person that's
(32:07):
that's reflecting God's color ofgratitude out of his life
towards people that are aroundhim.
Where you're loving them, whenyou're blessing them, when
you're you're not going, ohgreat, auntie's here.
You're you're speaking life.
That's incredibly powerful.
And the the words, your wordsand the way you love God and are
(32:31):
the colors that make this yourheart of yours grateful.
And so if you want to be able toreally impact your family this
holiday time, don't just praythat that you know, God, you
know, my auntie's coming over,and you know, Lord, she's a
(32:55):
crazy person, or or this person,or this family member.
But why don't you step back justa little bit and spend some time
asking yourself the question,how gr what is the color that
comes off of my life?
Because you know, I I meetChristians well-meaning who
(33:19):
think it's their job to correcteverybody who's not obeying
God's word.
Well, you know, the way you getsomebody to listen to you when
they're stuck in a hole is foryou not to be stuck in the same
hole because you have an opinionabout what you change in their
(33:43):
life, but you become the realarticle, like I was talking
about Carol Wimber.
You know, when she's when shespeaks, she gave me a word a
number of times in my story fromthe Lord, something she prayed
about.
And man, it just hit me, and itwas so good and so life-giving
(34:04):
to me, and it made me hungry formore.
That's what happens when youallow God to paint gratitude on
you, is one of your main colorsthat comes out of your heart,
and you're grateful to him forall that he's done, and you live
in this place of being sograteful that it unlocks the
(34:28):
gift of generosity where you aregenerous, loving people who
don't deserve to be loved.
Think about people that are inyour story that you've pushed
away, or kids that havedisappointed you.
(34:53):
How do you treat them when theyblow it?
Do you make them pay for it forfor months?
I mean, I used to do that.
I used to I used to be, youknow, really strong and hard
towards my kids, and and Godbegan to deal with that.
And you know, just a simplescripture, you know, that I'm
(35:18):
I'm supposed to forgive mychildren the same way God's
forgiven me.
That's completely in it.
When you learn to do that, andyou you learn to have a heart
towards people that are broken,like God has towards you,
because you're broken withouthim.
(35:40):
Is there anybody you can't spendtime with?
No.
And you can build relationshipswith people that that are even
completely on the oppositeperspective of of your political
party.
(36:01):
You know, I I had that happen tome on an airplane ride.
And my seat mate, uh we j end upjumping onto a new plane because
both of us figured out that ourplane had not mechanical, and so
we ran, you know, in the daysthat I could run.
(36:24):
I got on that escalator.
Let me say that.
I walked fast on an escalator.
It was like I was a pro athlete,once again.
And so we get on a plane, we sitdown, and we're talking, and and
so I looked at him and I and Ishared with him.
I said, So what what has Godmade you for?
(36:50):
I love asking that question.
And he goes, Well, it's likenobody's ever asked me that.
I said, Well, tell me what whatmakes your heart sing?
I mean, what what do you dothat's this you know, just
incredible that changes theworld?
And he goes, Well, I'm afundraiser.
(37:12):
I went, really?
And he goes, Yeah, I'm I I youknow, I helped raise about a
billion, not quite, but about abillion dollars to get Obama
like this present.
I went, wow.
That that's amazing.
And I he said, Well, well, well,who are you?
(37:34):
So I knew that God has kind ofset up a divine appointment with
me.
Welcome, Caleb and Klaus andFrank, and and another few guys
join tonight.
And I and I said to him, Well,I'm uh, and I I do this for just
striking off conversation, I'm aI'm a cultural revolutionary.
(37:59):
He he looks at me like, a what?
And he goes, are you a are you ademocrat?
I went, no.
He goes, oh, so you're one ofthem.
I go, well, what's one of them?
A Republican?
I said, no, I'm not aRepublican.
You're not a Republican?
(38:21):
Oh, so you're an independent.
So he's looking for anothervote, right?
I said, no, I'm not anindependent.
Well, well, who do you vote for?
And I said, so you don't have aparty?
I go, no, no.
Well, I'm part of a party.
It's a huge party, and it's gota king who's got a kingdom and
has a throne and his throne isout of this world, his name
(38:42):
Jesus.
He looks at me and he goes, Soyou're one of them?
I go, yeah, I'm exactly one ofthose guys.
Well, who do you vote for?
I said, I vote for the guythat's or the gal who's closest.
I said gal now, but it was guywhen I talked to him because
there wasn't a female runningfor president like we just had.
(39:05):
I said, I vote for the personthat's closest to the king that
I love and serve.
And they're really a far,they're really far off, but
there's somebody who could becloser.
And he just smiles at me.
And he says, So, but so tell me,what do you do?
You're not culturalrevolutionary.
I said, No, basically, God kindof sends me around.
(39:30):
I've been in many countriesaround the world doing events
for men and coaching men andhelping them.
And God brings me guys, maybe aguy like you, who's sold out for
a dream or a vision or a companyor something, and has lost the
(39:50):
heart of his children.
And he wants them back.
And I mean to tell you, it waslike a holy bomb went off
between me and this guy, andthat we really had no real
political connection.
And he didn't see me as theopposite party, but a guy who
(40:12):
gave him a word, and he starts,he wasn't weeping, but he was
teary-eyed.
He turned away, looked out thewindow.
He was at the window seat, andthen he heard back.
He goes, Can you help me?
You know, I've lost the heart ofmy daughter.
I've been so involved inpolitics and business that I'd
(40:36):
do anything to get her back.
And I say, Well, you're you'resitting next to a guy who's had
to learn how to do that with myown kids.
I was sold out playing football.
Then ministry for a while, and Istarted losing my kids.
(40:56):
And he said, What do I do?
And I I shared the love of Jesuswith this guy.
And we had the most amazingconversation.
And I prayed with him at theend, and he asked Christ in his
life, and and just, I mean, wecouldn't really hug, you know,
(41:17):
there wasn't enough room, but hewas just shook by the love of
God that came from a broken guylike me, who loved this guy that
was in front of me.
So we were getting ready toleave the airplane, and I
grabbed this bag for him and hadmine.
(41:38):
And there were people around usthat were sort of looking at me.
I could tell they maybe werelistening to the conversation,
and he looks at me and goes, youknow, don't take this wrong, but
I've never met anybody like you.
And I smiled at him and I said,Well, maybe you're hanging
(42:00):
around the wrong group.
I said, Sir, there are millionsand millions of men like me who
build a ladder to our dreams andstarted losing our families.
And this guy named Jesus came inour stories and turned us
(42:23):
around.
And he said, I'm gonna find achurch and I'm gonna do, I'm
gonna read your book.
I gave him my book.
I love that story, and but uh,you know what I love more is
that God filled me withgratitude for a guy who was just
(42:46):
on the way, and so that maybewe're was far off from him.
I mean, how many of you, youknow, have a family member who's
could really use something thisholiday time from you?
And so, how do you do that?
I'm gonna just share one morescripture with you, and then
(43:11):
something that you could do atThanksgiving that could make an
incredible difference for yourfamily if you've never done
this.
And it'll it'll make yourThanksgiving the best
Thanksgiving you have ever beenat, and it will have very little
to do with the food, but it'llhave something to do with
(43:34):
something that you do ingratitude with Jesus.
Well, here it is.
It says in the Thessalonians,rejoice always, pray
continually, give thanks in allcircumstances, for this is God's
(43:55):
will for you in Christ.
There's something that happenswhen you turn your grumbling
into rejoicing.
And the reason we rejoice is wedon't rejoice in our failure, we
don't rejoice in necessarily inour things, but we rejoice in
the Lord.
(44:15):
We're constantly praising himand living to thank him for all
the things he's done for us.
We're praying continually, we'rewe're having this conversation
all the time.
Lord, what are you doing?
And that's something you do atThanksgiving.
Father, what are you doing withwith those that are around me?
(44:37):
How do I reach my son that'shere, my daughter that's here?
How do I reach my wife?
How do I serve her?
How do I do what I need to do?
You're constantly connected.
So you're rejoicing, you'reconnecting, and at the same time
you're doing that, you're givingthanks for all that he's done.
You're being grateful, no matterwhat your circumstances are, no
(45:02):
matter what your circumstancesare, because the Bible says this
is God's will for you in ChristJesus.
See, God knows when we rejoiceand pray and give thanks, we
live a whole different day.
When's the last time you you hada day like that?
Well, you're you're rejoicingabout everything.
(45:24):
People think you're a littlecrazy.
Well, I rejoice in the Lord andwho he is.
I pray to him and his answersbecause I go through hard things
just like you.
I get pressed down, I getdepressed, I I get I go through
hard things just like all of usdo, but we can focus on the hard
(45:47):
things and start grumbling andmumbling.
And the next thing you know,we've talked ourselves into a
really good depression.
Anybody ever do that?
I can't tell you how many timesI've blown that in my life.
But when I open myself to justback into that scripture and and
I'm rejoicing, I'm rejoicing inwho God is.
(46:10):
That's how you rejoice.
And I'm praying and trusting hisprovision and answers to those
things that are impossible.
And I'm thanking him in allthose circumstances, and even
thanking him for the people he'sbringing to my house at
Thanksgiving that doesn't likeme very much.
Or maybe you don't like them.
(46:30):
Maybe this is the Thanksgivingwhere you change all of that.
And you can change theatmosphere that you're in if you
do this.
(46:52):
And and part of this comes from,I call this, you know, sharing
the art of gratitude thisThanksgiving.
And let me tell you, tell me howtell you how this started.
Started many years ago in one ofour Thanksgivings, where my son
Edward kind of took a cue fromme because of me really focusing
(47:19):
in on being grateful, but lovingmy children all the time, even
when they've blown it.
I'm speaking life into them, I'mloving them, I'm I'm doing
everything that I can to be thebest fathers.
God's fathering me.
And you know, the art of my lifeis starting to rub off on them,
and and is I is I'm doing allthose kind of things.
(47:40):
And so we're sitting down andwe've we've killed the fatted
beasts, we're sitting around theturkey.
And my son says, Hey dad, whydon't we go around the table?
And and one by one, everybodygets to pick one person and tell
everybody else at the table whatyou love about that person.
(48:05):
And I mean to tell you, it wasamazing.
And he goes, I'm gonna start,and then he blesses me as a son.
Of course, I'm weeping, and thegratitude that God has put in
(48:26):
him and his own gratitudetowards me as his father just
came out of those words as heblessed me.
Then I blessed someone, andJessica did, and Jill did, and
Mary did, and Lucas did, andJoshua did, and all around our
table we blessed one or motherand use this line.
(48:49):
Have I told you this is what I'mgonna tell you something.
This is what I love about you,and I am so grateful.
And it's talking about realthings you see in them that you
love.
And let me tell you, it cancompletely change the a person
when you speak life into themthat maybe is living in
(49:11):
darkness.
Maybe you have a family memberthat's struggling and everyone's
afraid of talking aboutsomething.
What would happen if you beganto talk about what you love
about them, not about theirpolitical differences or about
this or about that?
We say, hey, let's not talkabout politics, and then people
think that that's the magicformula.
(49:32):
And no, the magic formula islet's talk about something that
gives life, and that's what youlove about that person that's in
front of you.
Because how do you do it?
God fills you with that art ofgratitude.
He paints the gratitude in youbecause you're you're so you
just so grateful for what he'sdone is you got to tell
(49:55):
everybody about it.
And the best way you can do thatis practice telling that person
in front of you how much youlove them and what you love
about them.
Well, you might say, Well, I gotsome people that I couldn't do
that with.
Well, probably have to forgivethem first.
(50:15):
So you might have to privatelygo, Lord, I choose to forgive
them because I don't like themright now, and say, Lord, show
me something to bless thisrelative that's in front of me.
And I mean to tell you, God willdo a miracle.
I mean, I had a miracle happento me.
And it happened with my AuntBarbara that I love so much, but
(50:39):
we were kind of separated.
She she had kind of her storyliving my my mother's sister.
And, you know, the family, youknow, the family, you know, as
it happens, you can get verypolitical.
And next thing you know, you'veseparated people that God wants
you to love.
(51:00):
Through politics, throughelected people.
And elections are important andthey have consequences.
But what's more important is youcan do more good by being a
light for Jesus in the worldthan the greatest president of
(51:20):
all time.
Imagine if we all did that andand lived in this incredible
gratefulness and begin to blessone another.
Because something happens whenblessing comes from your lips
towards another person.
(51:41):
It catches them off guard.
And I'm gonna end with thestory, going a little bit long
on this, but it's just it's suchan important thing.
I I'm gonna do my best incommunicating it to you, and
then we're gonna pray at theend.
But I I I began to learn this,and it took me years to to
relearn.
How many of you have learned thesame lesson from God like 10
(52:03):
times?
Maybe 20 times.
You'll need to raise your handsout there.
And uh I had this player on myfootball team on the on the
Giants, and in the kind of theway of our team in the beginning
of the season was when, youknow, as many NFL locker rooms,
(52:25):
you're sitting on your stool,guys are chewing skull or
getting ready for practice orhaving their favorite drink and
putting their pads on.
And there was a player fromAlabama, a defensive player that
I practice against all the time,that would make fun of me as I
walked into the locker room.
(52:45):
And he'd just make fun of me.
And everybody'd laughed.
And my my neck name was likeReverend Ed.
Why do you think they gave methat thing?
Because I made it my goal beinga football player on that team,
more than winning the SuperBowl, to love those guys so that
they might encounter Jesus.
(53:06):
Because having a lot of moneyand fame without Jesus, you're
gonna be a mess.
I don't care who you are.
With Jesus, you'll be like someof these young quarterbacks
today in the end zone, taking aknee before they play and then
after the game.
Love those guys.
That's who I vote for, by theway, as football players.
(53:29):
I vote for the Christians.
I just I root for so that theycould stand up and be a great
example to our young people,because so few of them have
loving dads right now.
And so here's Curtis, and hisname's Curtis McGriff.
And Curtis was he was poking funat me, and and so it would it
(53:51):
would bother me, and I and Iwould get into the banter, you
know, and and I would I'd giveit right back to them, and it'd
be kind of who's gonna make funof one another more than the
other.
But this day I walked in and Istarted, I was praying.
I said, God, show me how to lovethis guy.
And and so he he's sort ofmaking fun of me, and it and
(54:16):
it's all in Jess, but you know,even poking fun and Jess and the
family is hurtful.
I've done that.
And so he did what he, you know,he said some things, and
everyone goes, whoa, they'rewaiting for now.
What's that emac, what'sReverend Ed gonna do?
(54:36):
And the Lord just gave he justput this in me.
And it was just he said, I justsaid to him, you know, Curtis,
you know what I love about youand I mean the whole tenor of
the room just begins to change,and they're all looking at me
like, what are you doing?
(54:58):
I said, I love I love that everytime I practice against you,
Curtis, you give your best.
And you're you're a greatfootball player, you're an
incredibly talented defensivetackle.
And I have to, I have to beyondmy game working just as hard as
(55:22):
you, and you make me a betterplayer every single day, every
single snap.
And if we had more guys like youon our team, and we had that
same intensity as Curtis does, Ithink we'd go to the playoffs
for the first time in 17 years.
(55:42):
And I mean, everybody was like,Whoa.
And it was just quiet, and then,yeah, yeah, that's right, man.
Curtis is, and it's sort of it'ssort of people started, yeah,
you're that way too.
And I mean, we were likebanishing off one another,
encouraging one another.
(56:02):
And so we're getting ready to goout to practice, and Curtis
comes by me and gets in front ofme, and he's a hawk, man.
He's a big, strong, incredibleathlete from the University of
Alabama.
And he looks at me and he goes,Man, thank you for that.
(56:23):
And nobody nobody speaks to methat way.
Thank you.
That meant a lot to me.
I'm really sorry I've beenfunning you, but you're a great
player too.
And I smile down and I said,Curtis says, let's go, let's go
stir these guys up and go to theplayoffs.
And you know what?
(56:44):
Our whole team began to shift.
Now, I'm not saying it happenedbecause of that moment, but that
locker room changed that day.
So I want you as you approachThanksgiving, I want you to
begin, I want you to pray foreverybody who's come into your
(57:05):
house.
Write their names down, peopleyou're gonna be there with,
maybe you're going to Auntie'shouse or somebody's house, and
ask God to show you somethingthat you admire about them that
you could publicly in front ofeverybody tell them what you
(57:26):
love about them and bless them.
You're gonna be like a match todry kindling and just begin to
bless one another.
Because there is nothing morepowerful in the whole world, in
(57:47):
my opinion, than a broken guywho learns how to use his lips
not to blame other people, butto bless them the same way that
God blesses us.
And that's when we are the mostlike Christ.
So anyway, we're getting ready.
We we we we're running out oftime.
(58:08):
I actually have a coaching groupthat I'm gonna meet with in a
minute and 30 seconds.
Yours truly has becomelong-winded, but I want to give
this to you and pray for you.
And before we we get off ourprogram, I want to let you know
that a brand new thing is goingto be released here soon.
Just want to let you know.
Would love for you to be a partof it.
(58:30):
It's called the FatherhoodAcademy.
And we're launching this, andit's a way for that we empower
men to be the spiritualchampions and fathers their
family needs.
Maybe you know a guy or you wantto be one of those guys.
And if you'll just get a hold ofme and send me an email and say,
(58:51):
Ed, I want to find out aboutthis and I want to be a part of
this.
Uh, you can email me, you canconnect with me, and I would
just be be honored.
You can send me an email to EdChandy at blessing of the
father.com.
But you want to be a part ofthis, this launch.
Maybe you're in a place whereyou could become a partner to
(59:14):
help us launch this because wehave some modules and things
that we need to invest in to beable to really present a
powerful thing for our studentsthat are going to be coming,
men, broken men, businessmen,leaders.
Uh, we have a module forchurches and podcasts, a lot of
(59:36):
stuff.
I'll let you know more aboutthat next week.
But before I get off, let'spray.
Father, I thank you for myfriends that are watching.
I am so grateful to be with thembefore Thanksgiving.
And I pray that you wouldconnect them to your gratitude
and they would have the bestThanksgiving they've ever had.
(59:58):
I pray for healing.
In relationships, I pray youwould bring them together and do
something profound in them.
Do something profound in them asthey connect to you.
And maybe you've been far awayfrom Jesus.
Well, all you got to do is say,Jesus, I'm I want to come back.
I want you to work thatgratitude in my own heart.
(01:00:20):
I'm tired of being bitter.
I'm tired of being alone.
I'm tired of being mad.
I want to learn to be grateful,to bless other people this
Thanksgiving in my family, in mylife.
And so, Lord, I pray for mybrothers and sisters.
I pray you would bless theirtimes.
I pray you would expand them ina powerful way.
(01:00:43):
Expand them, Lord.
Use them, Lord, and give themthe best Thanksgiving other in
the name of Jesus.
And all God's people said, Amen.
Well, I want one minute over.
I got another group waiting onme.
I gotta go.
But if you're interested infinding out more about what
we're doing, uh, you can go tomy website at
(01:01:06):
thefatherdifference.com andconnect there.
You could even find out aboutour academy there.
And uh, we even have a specialdeal right now.
You do not want to miss it.
I can't tell you it's toospecial.
And I will see you next week, onnext Tuesday, and next Thursday
(01:01:26):
for you gals that came in.
Remember, the father loves youand he gave his son to let you
know.
Thank you for being here.
I am so grateful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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