STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
9.11 - Bonus Episode - Thanksgiving
One more episode before the year ends: THANKSGIVING. Join us as we consider the biblical theme of thanksgiving and gratitude, its importance, and practical things we can do to encourage a grateful heart within ourselves.
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well, good morning. You thought that season nine was done and you were almost right. Welcome back to the Stand Strong podcast. And we are here for one final bonus episode of our study of the letter of Joy, the study of Philippians. We thought that with this week being the week of Thanksgiving and with one of the themes of the book of Philippians being one of Thanksgiving and that of giving thanks, we thought now would be an appropriate time to, to just have a short encouragement and discussion surrounding the idea of Thanksgiving to maybe help us all be in the, in the right mindset for this week and, and really. Beyond this week too.
Paul:Yeah. Not, not just, not just a this week kind of thing, not just a one day out of this week kinda thing. Yeah. And it's not just something that, well I'm gonna listen to it'cause I got a few minutes. Maybe share it with a family with the family, or listen to it together. Just reminders. We all need them. Scripture is full. Noah, as you know, with this concept of we, we need to be thankful people. Mm-hmm. We need to be grateful people. One of my favorite stories, Noah, is about a little boy going to a birthday party. So his mom came to pick him up and she asked him, did you thank the nice lady for, he invited you to the birthday party? Little boy said, well, no. And the mom said, well, why not? And I love what the little boy said. He said, well, I was going to. The girl in front of me thanked her. And so she said, don't mention it. So I didn't. And while, while, while that's funny, I, you know, there are times in my life where I, you know, we get used to what we get used to. I don't, I don't think about the fact that what, whether I'm gonna have something to eat or tomorrow mm-hmm. Or a place to live, there're just, there's seasons in our lives and there's times in our lives where sometimes we don't mean to, but we take the little things and the blessings of life for granted. We don't want to be that kind of person and we don't mention it. I don't mention it as often as I should count my blessings like I should just. You've heard this, this phrase before, an attitude of gratitude.
Noah:Right.
Paul:So kind of today is not trying to be preachy. Yeah. And it is not trying to tell people something they don't already know.'cause most people that we preach to that we worship with celebrate this week, celebrate a day of this week, get together with family and friends, and, and they are thankful. Yeah. I believe most people we preach to are very thankful people. So this is just a good opportunity to remind people of the blessings that we have.
Noah:Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And it just works out, I think, well, that we are coming off of a study of the book of Philippians. You know, we typified that book as a letter of joy, but it also begins and ends with. Expressions of Thanksgiving. You know, Paul says at the very beginning of chapter one, verse three, that he, thanks God when he remembers the Philippian Christians, and he's thankful to God for their faithfulness and their partnership mm-hmm. That he's had with them. And then when you get to the. The end of the book and you get to chapter four he ends with an encouragement to rejoice and be thankful. Even in the, even in the midst of, of need is really the context. He's, you may need a lot of things, but you can still be thankful. And he's, he's encouraging them to, to be that way. And so I think that, that, that shows us that when we're, when we are trying to. Get into a mindset of thankfulness and attitude of gratitude. Sometimes it's helpful to think. Beyond just the word Thanksgiving and think, think about the associated concepts that, that, along with that, I mean, Paul was rejoicing and he was thankful. So the, we come back to this idea of joy. Paul talks a lot there in chapter four about the idea of contentment, which is another biblical theme, right? And it's paired with Thanksgiving, and so I think it's really helpful. Coming out of this study, of this letter and trying to, you know, Wade maybe a little bit more into the broader idea of Thanksgiving, that we don't lose the roots of Thanksgiving. It comes from a place of joy. It comes from a place of contentment.
Paul:Yeah. Well, look, comes from a place of joy, comes from a place of contentment, man. Just say that again. Comes from a place of joy, comes from a place of contentment that's very, very rich because it's based in scripture. It, you know, Paul, you mentioned Philippians. We got on Philippians, it's in Ephesians. Mm-hmm. It's really in Colossians.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:A a favorite of mine because, you know, I think in threes. And so a favorite of mine, Noah, is First Thessalonians 5, 16, 17, and 18. And, and people have heard this before, we've read this before. I just love it. First Thessalonians 5, 16, 17, and 18. Be joyful, always. Pray continually give thanks in all circumstances.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. For you, anytime you read something says, well this is God's will for your life. This is God's will for you today. This is God's will for you this week and the rest of this year. Mm-hmm. And you know, we've talked about joy in Philippians.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:We've talked about prayer on this podcast several times before. Yeah. What a great time. He says, though, Noah. Give thanks in all circumstances. Yeah. I don't know about you. Sometimes I read that and say, well, there's a lot of things I'm not thankful for. And that's true. Yeah. I mean, a bad report from the doctor. Things that people I know will be going through and have been praying about and thinking about the, the bad news, the troubling times, the trials, and. When Paul says, give thanks in all circumstances, he's not saying Give thanks for right. Everything, but in everything. And that closely mirrors, you know, some things that he says in Ephesians chapter five. But here's what I read years ago. I wanna offer this for, for people to be thinking about.'cause you mentioned the joy and contentment. I love this one. Author says, the seeds of discouragement cannot take root. A grateful heart.
Noah:Mm.
Paul:We all get discouraged.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:That's a fact of life. Great Bible characters got discouraged. Yeah. But letting the seeds of discouragement take root is a whole nother matter. What helps us in that. Being thankful, giving thanks. Mm-hmm. In all circumstances.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah. Like you said at the beginning, I don't expect that anyone listening to this is hearing anything that they haven't heard before. Right. But I think something, one of the beautiful things about the message of gratitude and thankfulness and joy and contentment that we find in scripture. Is that it always comes back around. There's always a season where we know it, but we don't feel it. We, we know the facts of why we should be thankful, and we know the facts about which we should be joyful. But we don't have it. We don't have it. And that happens to all of us. And it, it comes in, it's cyclical, right? It comes in in ebbs and flows. And so my hope with something like what we're doing today is just a reminder that your joy isn't limited by your circumstance. It's who you find joy in. Your contentment is not found in your circumstance. It's not limited by your circumstances. It's contentment in in Christ and in what he has given you. And so therefore, your thankfulness, your gratitude doesn't have to be dependent on your circumstance. You can be grateful even in difficult circumstances. And if we can maintain that perspective and remind ourselves of that, that's gonna be an inoculation against the seeds of Yes. You know? Yes. Of discouragement for sure.
Paul:Yeah. I inoculation, I mean, this, this is one of the beautiful things about being on a podcast with a guy. You've got way too much depth in your vocabulary for your age. But, but I, I love the fact, so,'cause we said, and it's hard. It, maybe it's, I should say it's hard for me. So we're not gonna be preachy. I don't mean to be preachy. Not trying to be preachy. So I'm not gonna talk about, you know, contentment when you have a conversation about. An attitude of gratitude, a heart of thanksgiving. The, the, the, the purpose and the place of contentment mm-hmm. Is, is key in this. Again, we're not saying things to people. We're not trying to be preachy. These people. If you're listening, you've heard this before, but sometimes people are like, okay, let's get very practical. Mm-hmm. Some of the things. That we can do that, that I can do to just kind of help me at seasons and times in my life where I find that I'm, I'm starting to, to move into a place that's not a good place. I don't mean to be a complainer. I'm not trying to be ungrateful. I'm not trying to go days or weeks without expressing thanks to God, even though I'm in the middle of this or going through this. So. Things that I have done and a lot of what I do is either somebody telling me that they've been where I've been and said, try this. Mm-hmm. I've started doing this. One of the things that has been helpful. To me in the last probably 10 years or so. And again, I've told you before, I'm a morning person,
Noah:right.
Paul:It doesn't mean every morning is like a yeehaw morning, but I get up early.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And so I, I try to use that as an opportunity to feed me to, to take care of me and, and obviously there's prayer time. In that I didn't, I didn't realize this. A friend of mine said, look in scripture, like he gave me two verses, like I'll just read'em. Colossians four, two, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of Thanksgiving.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:Then Colossians three 16, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to the Lord. The two things in those passages that are being highlighted is prayer and singing. Mm-hmm. And in both cases with an attitude or with thankfulness?
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:So what helps me. To prevent the devil from entering my mind and taking control of my thoughts is expressing Thanksgiving in my prayer. And I like songs. I I'm a singer. I'm not a song leader, but there's, there's a song list, there's a playlist that I have and I can listen to certain songs and it puts my mind in a better place. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying stay there forever, you know, 15 or 20 or 30 minutes. But the, the, the songs that I'm hearing, the verses that I'm reading that help me in the thoughts that I express to God in prayer and Thanksgiving is a central part of that whole, yeah. 10 or 15 minutes.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah. That's really helpful. I was thinking about some of the things, like you have said, some of the things that have helped me when I found myself. Discouraged and, and in a place where I really do need to refocus. And I was thinking about, so Thanksgiving, the holiday is is probably my family's big holiday of the year. That's, mm-hmm. That's that's when most of us are together with extended family. And one of our traditions that we have during our couple of days together is that one evening we'll sit down and we'll sing hymns together for an hour, hour and a half. And it's just, it's a lovely time. There's kids running around, there's ruckus all for days and days. And sometimes thankfulness for me is I'm sitting there in the midst of all of this ruckus or in the middle of that singing, where there's, like you said, you know, we're focusing our minds specifically on that. And thankfulness for me is being very conscious of the blessings. The fact that I'm sitting here with these people, that I have these relationships, you know, it's something that's very present.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Noah:Sometimes that's what thankfulness looks like.
Paul:Right.
Noah:But I have found on a more daily, you know, routine way of looking at things as opposed to those special moments like that, the more routine things, one of the, one of the greatest detriments to, to my thankfulness is distraction. Hmm. We think that we'll be happy when we entertain ourselves, when we're constantly doing something, we're constantly seeing, listening, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But really what we've done is we've distracted ourselves. And if you go a day just constantly moving from A to B, to C to D, never breathing, never pausing.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Noah:Or two days, or three days or a week, you do that, you will find you never had a moment to simply be thankful.
Paul:Right.
Noah:So something that I have found particularly helpful is to turn it off, whatever it is, whatever it is. What about this? Yes. Turn it off. Mm-hmm. The phone, turn it off the tv, turn it off the radio, turn it off, whatever that is. Sit in quiet while you're driving, while you're at home. After the kids are in bed, before you go to sleep, sit with the lamp on. Don't open a book. Don't turn on music. Don't turn on show. Turn it off. Be thankful. That's been really helpful for me.
Paul:Yeah, yeah. Amen to that. You know, we used to sit around and it was, it was generally at the table and, and I remember going all the way back to the days it was going to Grand Grandma and granddad's in Arkansas. That was the, that was the time that we went. Mm-hmm. Thanksgiving. You'd sit around the table and you go around, okay, I'm thankful for this, and you had been one thing. I'm thankful for this, and you. And when, when you're raising kids and then you're thinking, okay, I'm gonna bring that into our house, and then the kids are little and you say, okay, we're going around the table. Everybody's gonna say, oh, I'm thankful for this. I'm thankful for this. Just, just wait. Some, one of the kids at a young age is gonna say, I'm thankful that this is almost over. You know? But, but here's my, here's my encouragement in that, is you don't realize the good that that's being accomplished by certain traditions. That are pretty good traditions. Yeah. And, and they did it when they were seven and eight, and even when they were preteens and teens and the look on their face was like, really? And then they start their families and then, then they're doing it. Yeah. And you're like, oh, okay. So the blessing isn't always immediate. Right. Right. But it, it's there. It'll come.
Noah:Yeah. I mean, you're establishing, or at least helping to establish. A a, a mindset, a, if we wanted to use the term, a posture of the heart that is inclined in this direction, that that goes. I have found joy. In this, and I recognize that is a good gift of God. Every good gift comes from God, you know, the father of lights and whom there, there is no shadow of change. And so I'm thankful to God. Well, what if we just demonstrated to our children? Where should Thanksgiving be directed? When we're, when we're joyful, when we have something to be thankful for? Where's that directed to? It's God. Every good gift comes from God. You know, we're, we're creating this inclination. To automatically say, this is good and it's because of God.
Paul:Yeah, I love it. I think this is a great time, a season of the year. I've been so fortunate to be here as long as I've been here in one place, in one church, and I've tried to remind myself and the people that I serve that this is a great time of the year to express giving. When, when you're thinking about Thanksgiving and you're giving thanks and you're very keenly aware of, of how blessed we are, a, a way to express Thanksgiving, one way I should say is by sharing, passing it on to others. Yeah. And, and I, I'm not even bringing up money. I, I'm just ways to express Thanksgiving through sharing. And the other thing is that we're going to a season of the year at a time where some of the blessings and opportunities that we may have, others don't have. Mm-hmm. Others used to have, they're not. Where we are. And one of the things that I'm thankful for this time of year is, is I get to share a time, share a meal, share a day or days with other people. Remember that there's someone that's sitting around a table and it's empty. Yeah. And the, one of the wonderful things that takes place here I know in this church is people are very. Aware concerned they don't want somebody eating alone. Yeah. Who would rather not eat alone? Somebody not being alone. And again, you can offer an invitation and people will respectfully decline, but the one thing you can do, we can keep on doing is in our secret place, make sure we lift up these people to God.
Noah:Mm.
Paul:That, that are going through a difficult time be because some of the people that were in their life that shared with this season of time, they're not there anymore. Yeah. And so it's just a good reminder when we express thanks in our prayers. Also ex mention the people
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:That need the Lord and the Lord's care and peace and mercy.
Noah:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I, I always look forward to this time of year. I, I like the cooler weather and I like that Thanksgiving is, has a, has a special place in my heart and and I'm thankful for the opportunity as well that it grants to refocus a little bit to, to bring into sharper clarity. What a wonderful. Thing it is to be thankful.
Paul:Yeah. We're sitting here in the studio and nobody knows, but you and I know we both own, have on jackets. What a, what a wonderful thing. And it just says we serve a God. Seasons and change. Mm-hmm. Change is coming. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what that'll be. Only the Lord does. But in the end, there's gonna be a change. We're gonna all be changed, and we ought to give thanks to God because of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.
Noah:Aim into that.
Paul:We're so this is we're gonna take a break. We will not be in the studio. Noah and I have other obligations and we're spending some family time together and we're refueling for next season. Wow. Season 10.
Noah:That's, yeah, believe it or
Paul:not. Oh my. And I think we're gonna spend probably 12 months in Leviticus in season 10. That's the plan. Teaser? Not really.
Noah:Anyway. I mean, I love Leviticus, so I, I, I'd be down, but, oh my.
Paul:Oh my. So we're gonna give this a little break. We're gonna come back the start of the new year. If the Lord gives us the new year 2026, we'll come back in the start of the new year. We'll launch season 10. We'll give our teaser, we'll let folks work, know where we're gonna go, but we're gonna do that starting at the beginning of next year. So Noah, any last words to our group? Season nine, all our listeners.
Noah:Well, I'm just thankful that you've joined us over the past. Three years now that we've been doing this podcast. That you've been patient with us as we've learned the ropes of recording and, and publishing, and I'm thankful for the encouragement that you've been to us as we've continued this work. So I hope that you have a wonderful end of your year and I'm looking forward to next year.
Paul:I am too. I want us to pray together, Noah, just about anything that's on our heart, on your heart that we can lift up to God. Today as we end season nine and in people this week or where they are and with family and other things, if you'll just lift all this up to God in prayer please.
Noah:Sure. Heavenly Father, we praise you for your goodness. Some days we look away, we blind ourselves, we distract ourselves. But any moment where we're honest with ourselves, we can see your goodness in our lives, and we thank you for that. I pray that you be with everyone who has been listening to this study of Philippians and the studies before that. I pray that you have strengthened them through the power of your word. I pray that the efforts that Paul and I have been putting into this have, have blessed them and have helped them as they've tried to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. And I pray that you be with us moving forward. Pray that you be with Paul and with me, and with all of your children who are seeking your will. Please help us to have hearts that are full of your joy, that are content with your mercy and that find thanksgiving even in the darkest of times. We love you, and we thank you for your love and your mercy. It's in your son's name that we pray. Amen.
Paul:Amen, and amen. Well, we just believe with the Lord's help and all that we're going through and also with the care of one another, we can stand strong.
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