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Plays On Word Radio
Ep 97: Attitude of Gratitude – Embracing Thanksgiving
"Do YOU have an attitude of gratitude? You can! Today we explore gratitude's transformative power, using Psalm 100 and Bible stories to show how an attitude of thanksgiving shifts our focus from challenges to God's blessings."
Discover how embracing gratitude can transform your spiritual journey as Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenney Jr., leads us on an exploration of thanksgiving from a biblical perspective. Imagine recognizing God's presence in every facet of your life; this episode promises to guide you toward that enlightening realization. Drawing inspiration from Psalm 100, Pastor Teddy encourages us to find joy in making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, and entering His gates with thanksgiving, urging us to appreciate the evidence of God's existence in creation and to cultivate an attitude of gratitude that echoes through our lives.
Join us as we uncover the transformative power of thanksgiving and faith with powerful stories from the Bible. Pastor Teddy illustrates how the acts of giving thanks and worship can shift our focus from life's challenges to the blessings of being a new creation in Christ. From Jonah's story to the dedication of Solomon's temple, we delve into how recognizing God's goodness and steadfast love leads to a powerful spiritual act that confounds negativity and radiates joy. This episode offers a compelling look at how gratitude can reshape our perceptions and deepen our spiritual connection.
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Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:It's the best and where you might be emotionally, offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Lord, I'm going to say thank you, I'm going on record, I'm going to praise you and say thank you, lord. Thank you, lord. The devil don't know what to do with that man. You literally break the enemy's teeth when you do that. You're the only thing. You're the only thing.
Speaker 1:You're the only thing. Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today. Let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God. Yeah, alright.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Well, welcome to all of you listening to Plays Onward Radio. There's the Mike Morgan bumper music right there. Get your groove on for this Thanksgiving weekend, amen. So we want to welcome you. Thank you very much, katie Kenney and Josh Taylor, for that lovely intro. All right, just had to let that groove for a second.
Speaker 2:There we are celebrating or yesterday we celebrated a day of giving thanks, and we continue, as believers in Christ, we continue to give thanks, and I wanted to take a look at the Scripture. This is plays on Word, emphasis on the word there, after all, and I want to take a look at some places in the Scripture that talk about being thankful. We all should be thankful if you are breathing right now and for some of you it's more difficult than others but if you are breathing right now, we have a reason to be thankful and to be grateful that the Lord has indeed given us life, given us an opportunity to know Him, opportunity. Once we do know Him, when you truly know the Lord, you cannot help but offer thanksgiving and praise for what he has done, who he is, yeah, so an attitude of gratitude is basically what I'm pointing to here. Let's take a look at some of these scriptures, though in the scripture I want to start out. This is the. You could say.
Speaker 2:This is the theme scripture for this broadcast today, and it comes from Psalm 100. Listen to this. It says make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth, with an exclamation point there in the English Serve the Lord with gladness. Another exclamation point, it's throughout these, so I'm not going to keep saying Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pastor. Enter his gates with what? Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures. How long? Forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Amen. Psalm 100. Right there on this Thanksgiving edition of Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:One of the keys on that is know that the Lord, he is God. When you know the Lord, when you recognize like, all you got to do is just look outside. Just, if you're near a window, just look outside for a second. And if you're not near a window, just look around you. And if you're not near a window, just look around you Through the things that have been made.
Speaker 2:Men are without excuse to know that God exists. There is no excuse for any person. No one will ever be able to stand before him and say I just didn't have enough information, I didn't know, I didn't know that you were real. Listen, listen, man. God has given every single person a mind. He's given us ways to see, hear and know Him through the things that have been made. Even those that don't have eyes, even those that are born blind. You can know God through what has been made and know that there is a God. See, the problem is not that there is not enough light in the world. The problem is that mankind loves darkness. So the idea is, if man would respond to the light that he's given, he'll get more light. So no one will be able to say I didn't have enough information.
Speaker 2:Now, on the other side of that, those of us that have recognized wait a second man. This is not an accident. Recognize wait a second man. This is not an accident. There's design behind, even in the madness that we see, and we see dimly. Right now we don't even see the original design. We see is what kind of looked like a beautiful, a beautiful Cadillac or a beautiful car, a super high end, perfectly engineered vehicle. But we see it after the car accident and the wreck where it's been completely burnt and wrapped up and smashed up, windshield broken, bumpers, all blown off. That's what we see in creation. But we can still look at that and say there's blueprints behind that. I can still see some design and the fact that God's creation is still rocking steady after the fall of man.
Speaker 2:Who was in charge of everything, in charge of the cosmos? Yeah, not just this handful of dirt here, handful of dirt here, and the impact on this handful of dirt and the entire cosmos. Man was in charge. Man was the only one that was made in the image of God. According to the scripture, man is the pinnacle of God's creation. So we see him creating all kinds of stuff in Genesis and the pinnacle is mankind.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's pretty arrogant, pastor. Listen, man, it's not me who said it, it's just the Scripture. The argument's not against me. This is what Scripture tells us. You can take it or leave it, you know. You can believe what you want. I would highly recommend believing the word of God, which stands forever.
Speaker 2:Can I get an amen? A whole bunch of y'all just said amen. I can feel it coming over the radio waves. Anyway, this idea of knowing him, we can know Him, and when you do get to know Him, you cannot help but praise Him. I'm going to read another psalm for you.
Speaker 2:Listen to this. This is from Psalm 9. And the psalmist says I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all your wonderful deeds, psalm 9, verse 1. And it's absolutely imperative If you're feeling bummed out and you're not even feeling thankful, look at what God has done and recount the wonderful deeds. Every single one of us has wonderful deeds that the Lord has done for us, individually and then as a group, what he did for us. Oh man, are you kidding me? What he did for us.
Speaker 2:Listen, we had no hope of eternity. None, we had no hope. Listen to me, if you listen to say amen, thank you. We had no hope of eternity with him. None, everyone had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23. In the Greek, where it says everyone, it means everyone, every single person, everybody has sinned.
Speaker 2:Jesus also said in Matthew 5.48, and those of you who know where I'm going with this that have listened to this program, matthew 5.48, and those of you know where I'm going with this that have listened to this program, matthew 5.48, you've got to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Wait a second. You mean I've got to be perfect like God's perfection, meaning not 99.9% good, not 99.9% right. No, I have to be 100% like God. Wait a minute. The only way to? There's no way I have to be a hundred percent like God. Wait a minute. The only way to. There's no way for me to be a hundred percent like God. I can't be a hundred percent like God, especially since I live in this car wreck. I live in this tainted, broken universe and my heart is broken, my mind is broken, everything is tainted and bent. I don't even have a point of reference for perfection. Oh, but what I do?
Speaker 2:The Word of God, specifically one person in the Word of God who challenged everybody in his time which is actually an unfortunate phrase there, because his time is all time but his earthly ministry. He challenged the religious leaders, dared them. He said can any of you accuse me of sin? Basically saying if you got anything on me, bring it Any of you. And this is in front of a mob of people that you know. There was a bunch of people that loved Jesus, and there were the teachers of the law and the religious leaders that absolutely were completely jealous of him. They had JDS Jesus Derangement Syndrome. Some of you will get that. So, yeah, anything he did was wrong, anything you know, and they were looking under every rock and under everything. They if there, believe me, if there was any law or sin that he had broken, they would have brought it to him. They would have said wait, this time you, you, you didn't blah, blah, blah, no, you know, blah blah. And they could not bring anything. And this is the point.
Speaker 2:Like I said earlier, romans 3.23 meant all of us have sinned since Adam. From Adam. We are all in that car wreck. So Adam wrecked the car with Eve in it, and so we're all kids at a car wreck. And God is saying, no, no, you need to be perfect, but we don't even have a reference point for perfect, except for Jesus and in the earthly ministry of Christ. I mean especially from our perspective. I mean especially from our perspective. It has limits as far as what we can glean from Him. We have all we need for life, though, through the Scripture, through.
Speaker 2:Worth giving thanks to God is the fact that he has given us and sent us His Spirit to live within us, to guide us, to show us the way of righteousness, to convict us when we're on the wrong path, not condemn us. Notice, I didn't say condemn path, not condemn us. Notice, I didn't say condemn. To convict us when we're on the wrong. So are you see where I'm going with this? There is reason to be thankful to God Almighty. He didn't leave us and just expect us to operate as if the car wreck never happened, although that's what the law demands. And the law, the point of the law, was to lead us. The law is a guardrails, a tutor, a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, so that we go.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know what we can't, I can't, you know what I can't. I can't be perfect, but I know someone who was, and he loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20. Wait, a minute. He loved me, gave himself for me, and now the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God. Yeah, man, I kind of flipped it around there, but still Galatians 2.20. That's an everyday verse, you guys. You can read that every day. I have been crucified with Christ. It's not I no longer live. It's not me, it's Christ living in me.
Speaker 2:There is reason to be thankful, to be grateful, and it starts check it out it all starts with him. So if you're bummed out and having a difficult day or whatever, that's understandable. We live in the car wreck, but God's saying get your eyes off this busted up car here that Adam smashed up, that you were born in, that you live in. That affects every aspect of our being, it has saturated our being. But oh, guess what, when we come to faith in Christ, it says we are a what A new what. Some of you know where I'm going. Let me give it to you directly from him. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a what A new creation. Oh, the old has passed away, the car wreck has passed away and, behold, the new has come. And all this is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. What, yeah, man? The old has passed away and the new has come. If you're in Christ, I think that's a reason to be thankful.
Speaker 2:Psalm 107,. Let's go back to our thankful study here. Psalm 107, verse 22,. It says the psalmist says and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy. Again, recounting the deeds we said in Psalm 9 there, recount the deeds of God. You start listing what he's done for you personally. You start just thinking about that. I have breath.
Speaker 2:I woke up today. He engineered himself into my life so that I know him. And if you don't know him, he's calling you right now to know him. Okay, even this is engineered. You listening right now. If you don't know him, those of us that do. He engineered that man.
Speaker 2:Start with the deeds he's done in your life you know. And then go on a macro level and look what he's done for the world, for the cosmos. In the Greek, for the universe, yeah, it says the whole creation in Romans 8,. The whole creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. What Thanksgiving I mean? The whole creation is waiting, the whole cosmos. That day's coming. You guys, hallelujah, amen.
Speaker 2:Look at Psalm 116. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving Again. Psalm 107, he says and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. Psalm 107, he says and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. And then Psalm 116, verse 17,. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. That is an offering to the Lord. It is a sacrifice to the Lord. We don't bring bulls and goats and sheep and doves anymore, but oh, we still bring the sacrifice of thanksgiving to him, thanksgiving and praise.
Speaker 2:But every believer can offer thanksgiving and offering. You might not even feel like offering thanks. You might be so bummed out that you're just like I don't feel like I have anything to be thankful for. I'm just so upset, I'm in a bad place, I'm not in a good place. Hey, that's understandable. We are in the car wreck, man, we live in the car wreck and it's understandable. So therefore, in spite of how you feel and where you might be emotionally, offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, lord. I'm going to say thank you. I'm going on record, I'm going to praise you and say thank you, lord, thank you Lord.
Speaker 2:The devil don't know what to do with that man. You literally break the enemy's teeth when you do that, because he wants us to, like Job's wife said to Job. You know, curse God and die. The enemy wants, especially when we are in a difficult place, a difficult position, a place maybe we never expected to find ourselves offer thanksgiving to God, because he's still God. He doesn't move. He didn't move. He's still God and worthy of praise, worthy of thanksgiving for everything he's done and everything he's even allowed. He's worthy of thanks. Look at Psalm 147, verse 7. I'm going to hit you with that one. Sing to the Lord with what Thanksgiving? And make melody to our God On the lyre, talking about like stringed instruments.
Speaker 2:Now, there's so many Thanksgiving passages that mention Thanksgiving Probably don't have time to, I, definitely don't have time to go into all of them, but there's one in particular that I love. Actually, no, there's not one, there's a bunch in particular. There's a few that I've picked out here. Listen to this from 2 Chronicles 7. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple this is when Solomon dedicated everything on the temple they bowed down their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped God. They worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying For he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. I love that. I love that they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord. An attitude of gratitude leads us to worship, because when you have gratitude, you're recognizing what this great person has done for us in our life and that will lead directly to praise, recognition of his worth-ship. That's the origin, his worth ship. He's worthy of our adoration, our admiration, our praise, everything, hallelujah, all right. Now, look at, this is one of my favorites here. Look at this. This isn't it. This is from you guys know.
Speaker 2:The story of Jonah Plays on words. Actually, working on a Jonah play, the Lord seemed to switch my schedule around a little bit. It might even come out this next year, I don't know. I don't know how we're going to pull off the being in the fish thing, but the Lord will show us how to do it. So, jonah, when the fish takes him down into the, the depth, when the fish under the water, way down deep, it says in chapter 2 it's an amazing chapter because first chapter is the story of him running away and then the fish. They throw him overboard and the fish takes him.
Speaker 2:In chapter 2 it says then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish, saying Jonah, I called out to the Lord. Now let me stop for a second. Please listen to this, okay, because this is applicable, applicable. I can't say it. You know what I mean. This applies to us today and many of us right now. Maybe we feel like we're in the depths, and this is the lowest point in the story of Jonah, and some people might be in the lowest point of their lives right now. Listen to this. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from where? From the belly of the fish. That's the low point Saying I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, meaning the grave. I cried and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me.
Speaker 2:Many of you can relate to this. I know I can. I have been able to at certain times in my life. All your waves and your billows have passed over me. Then I said I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. What is Jonah talking about? He's in the lowest point, the depths of the depths inside this fish, here, and he's at the bottom of the sea. And he looks up and says yet again, I shall look upon your holy temple. That's a glimmer of hope. That's a glimmer of hope right there. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me and the weeds were wrapped about my head At the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord, my God, this is similar to the resurrection of Christ in many ways. I don't have time to go into that, but I just wanted to plant that seed for you. When my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.
Speaker 2:Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love Verse 9,. But this is the key right here in the whole thing. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Verse 10,. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon dry land. How awesome is that man Thanksgiving? He's talking about Thanksgiving from within the belly of this fish at the bottom of the depths. If we're in a difficult spot, man, if we're at the bottom, we feel like all the hope is lost. Let's offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, because he's worthy of it. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. Oh, and the what and the peace of God, and the what and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah, amen, amen, amen, amen. Hey, I'm going to end with Psalm 150.
Speaker 2:Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord in his sanctuary, Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise him with the lute and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals. Praise him with loud, crashing, clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. That's all the time we have for today. We're going to see you next week, though, god willing, the Lord tarries. So until then, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
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