Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of gratitude in his sermon, illustrating how cultivating a mindset of gratitude can liberate us from negative emotions and complaints. He shares a personal story from 1973, when he faced the paralysis of his younger brother, which forced him to reevaluate his frustrations and embrace a broader perspective on life. Bickle argues that gratitude is not automatic; it requires intentional effort to see the bigger picture and recognize God's grace in our lives. He warns against the dangers of complaining, which can bind our hearts and hinder our spiritual growth, while gratitude opens the door to peace and joy. Ultimately, he encourages believers to rejoice in the Lord always, as this mindset can profoundly impact our relationships and spiritual lives.

and the liberty that comes to our heart when we intentionally cultivate a mindset of gratitude. Now, gratitude is not natural to us. It's something that we are intentional about. It takes... Gratitude is the fruit of seeing things different, and we naturally see the negative, and we naturally feel the pain and the pressure and the resilience of the negative that's right before us, and we can lose sight so easily, just because we're humans, of the remarkable, vast, positive that our life is related to because we're under the leadership of Jesus. And the enemy wants to keep us trapped in the narrow bubble of the struggle of our life, so that we don't take a step back and see the big picture, the truth about what is really true about our life. Because when we see what's really true, the big picture, the positive, our attitude changes dramatically. Gratitude's automatic. Gratitude isn't something that we're... We have to work hard to be grateful. We have to work hard to see clearly, and when we see clearly, we're grateful. The labor is in working to see clearly. Establishing, I mean, intentionally, cultivating a mindset that sees the big picture and refuses to be stuck in the bubble of our small struggles and agendas, which we most naturally are stuck in. I found in my life, of course, I need to grow in this area a lot, but it's an area I've been committed to over the years, and I have found liberty touches my emotions. And frustration, despair, annoyance, which are being annoyed, frustrated, bothered, which are very normal human emotions for everyone, I have found that I can walk in far more liberty from those common, normal human emotions when I cultivate this mindset. And I remember the year when this struck me the hardest. I had a radical, real radical, life-shifting year in 1973. I know that sounds like a long time ago, but it was. And it was the one of the issues that changed most, probably the most significant issue that changed from the positive, was the issue of gratitude. And in 1973, I was 18 years old and my 17-year-old brother broke his neck in a high school football game. And I was playing college football at the time. I was pursuing my dreams in the Lord, etc., in my ministry, in my career, etc. And suddenly, my brother, one year younger, totally paralyzed from the neck down, couldn't move one finger, couldn't clear his voice because he only had one-fourth of his lung capacity. So now I quit college and I go to be with him at a rehab center, and I'm at this rehabilitation center for six months, when I'm 18 years old. It's in Denver, Colorado. And everybody in this rehab center, because it was reputed as one of the top rehab centers in the world, almost all of them were about 20 years old. They only took, mostly only took young people, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. And most of them were athletes and active, and they had injuries, and now they're totally paralyzed. And every bed is another 18-year-old who's totally paralyzed and they're new with it. It's, I mean, the devastation. It's just incredible devastation of something like that to any age, but 18, 19, 20, and the whole hospital, the whole rehab center was filled with them. They had about a hundred beds, and I got to know many of the people, and I was in and out of rehab centers for the next couple years, and mostly interfacing with young people. And I was confronted with, here I have a healthy body, a lot going on in my life, and I was looking at the anguish of my younger brother and all the young people in those beds. And I had normal frustrations in life, and I had to face those frustrations and measure them in light of the people I was talking to 15 hours a day for the next couple years. Because I was in and out of those for a couple years, interfacing with this, and I thought, what on earth am I complaining about? And I started drawing back and thinking, what is the real storyline? I mean, how does this thing really work? How could I make sense of my brother's injury, which he was paralyzed for 33 years? How can I make sense of this for him, and how am I going to carry my heart with my insignificantly small frustrations that before this year were very big frustrations? And I began this very aggressive, nearly violent emotional vibe. It was really disruptive of reshifting my mindset and thinking, what is going on? It was the most life-changing year of my life, and the most life-changing issue was the issue of gratitude. And I didn't like the emotions I was feeling, and yet I had to find a way. I just couldn't complain in the same way when I saw, not just my brother, but all these young people that were my age, and I just thought, okay, so you're not doing so well on the football team, so a few of your friends are mad at you, so the money's not coming in, so your impact's not that great, so you feel a little tired today, so some annoyance, and some annoyance, and some annoyances, and all these other areas. And I began to say, what am I doing in my complaining mindset? And now that I look back many years later, 40 years plus later, and I see that I was forced into this dilemma of shifting my mindset. It wasn't something I chose out of godliness, I was just confronted so violently with it every single day for years, that I just had no other option but to shift over. And I look back, and that was probably the most formative time in my spiritual life, spiritually, because of the issue of gratitude. And then the other issue at that same time was I began to discover that God enjoyed me. So the idea that God enjoyed me, and I got a way better deal in life than I deserved, those two issues set me on a trajectory, a pathway with the Lord that changed a lot of the way I thought, and felt, and processed frustrations, and failures. If God likes me, and I'm getting a way better deal than I deserve, then you look at problems and setbacks very, very differently than if you think God's mad at you, and you're getting a bad deal. And our most natural mindset is to focus on the negative, the negative in the person, or the negative in the situation. And though the negative in the person that we are relating to, or the negative in the situation is small, and it's focused, but that focus dominates our mind for a few, for a period of time. And that will lock our hearts. And if we don't see complaining, that's the negative way to say it, is complaining. The positive way to say it is gratitude. If we don't see complaining as one of the primary enemies of our life, that enemy will destroy many things in our heart, our spiritual life, our relationships. Complaining is one of the most destructive, but yet common, passed over enemies of our life. It's the subject of complaining. The same idea, but the opposite way, I mean the opposite way to say it is gratitude is one of the most liberating, peace-producing mindsets we could have. And our life is in the balance, our marriages are in the balance, our families are in the balances, our relationships are in the balances of where we are in the struggle to move out of complaining into gratitude by seeing the truth more clearly. Again, we don't work hard to be grateful, we work hard to have a different mindset, to see more clearly. Seeing clearly is the key. Because anytime you see clearly the truth about what's really going on with you and the Lord, I mean gratitude is remarkable. I mean we have full, final, eternal forgiveness of everything for free. That's pretty intense. We have God dwelling in us forever. We're in the family as sons of God, daughters, the bride of Christ, partners. We're sons of the resurrection, it says in Luke chapter 14. Jesus said your sons of the resurrection, what you're doing in this life is going to actually carry over with continuity to the resurrection. The smallest deed of giving a cup of cold water is going to matter and be remembered over there. Your life is crowned with glory. All the small insignificant things you do matter and you'll see when it's all over. When this life is over you'll see how important they were and how you were not forgotten, you were not passed by, your life was not unimportant, you did make an impact, things did matter, but all of those other emotions are the most natural way that we process life. I want to say it again, our life is in the balance between how we process our struggle with complaining and how we embrace the mindset that cultivates that mindset that gratitude is the most natural response to. And I'll add that second emotion that I mentioned or that second understanding that God actually delights in us. Because God is so gracious, the one who is giving leadership over our life is so gracious with our failures, he's so gracious in the way he rewards us, he's so gracious in the way he plans our life for billions of years, the way that he involves us in his kingdom, in his family. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have invited us into the inner circle of their family forever. Beloved, we have it made big time. Seriously, we have it made. And I'm like you, I want more money, more friends, less trouble, I want to be liked more, I want all that stuff, but I'm not going to let those things dominate the narrative of my life. I got a narrative, I got a life story so much bigger than how much money or how many people are being positive and responding right today. My life story and your life story is so much bigger than that issue. And yet the enemy wants to trap us into the bubble of our individual momentary frustration and challenge, so we get locked up. And that's called bitterness. When we get locked up it grows, that little seed grows and grows, then our spirit is dull, then our spirit gets defiled, and then we break our relationships and family, our marriage, our children by the words we say. And then we're not motivated to press through in obedience, and we draw back and sulk and contemplate, spend more time and energy planning how we can give up than how we can press through. And the enemy says, I got you, I got you, and all I got to do is to get you complaining. I'll trap you the rest of your life right there. And gratitude actually liberates us. And I find that, and I've interacted with this subject in my own heart over the years because of that critical life-changing year. And then my brother Pat for 33 years, he was totally paralyzed, and so just relating to him all the years, and and again just in and out of the different rehab centers and the lives of the peoples. And I just thought, what am I complaining about? What is it? So my church isn't growing. So some people are mad at me. So I'm struggling with an issue in my health. So some things aren't working right. I mean, I don't like those things, but that's not the true story and narrative of my life or your life. And so we take a step back, and we see the big picture. Well, let's look at Philippians chapter 2. I looked at this a few weeks ago in February. I spent two weeks on this subject, but it's such a powerful verse in Philippians 2. Then we're going to move over to Philippians 4. Because Paul starts, he tells us the negative side. He says, do all things without complaining. Then in chapter 4, he goes to the positive side, rejoice in the Lord. Because rejoicing in the Lord is the same as gratitude, or praise, or thanksgiving. Those are all the same ideas. So he starts here. He goes, do all things without complaining, without disputing. Don't let the small seeds of annoyance grow into a big dispute. See the annoyance, the frustration. It's real, but don't let it dominate the relationship to where it becomes a dispute. And most disputes start off as small things that annoy us, and they grow and grow and grow. He says, and it's interesting, verse 15, Philippians 2, he defines living blameless in context to resisting a spirit of complaining. He goes, if you will resist complaining, you'll end up living blameless. Like what? That's a big leap. To resist complaining, you'll live blameless? Really? And he goes, and not only that, you'll shine bright. You'll stick out in a dark world if you resist complaining. Your heart will get free, and your testimony will be far more powerful. You'll shine like a light. People will say, what is it you see I don't see? Because your heart is free. You've got a happy spirit. And I don't mean jovial, but you're not weighed down and despairing, and just weighed under the concern, like so many other people are. What is it you see I don't see? Is what the people around you want to know. And that's what Paul said here. He goes, you'll shine. You'll stick out in a dark environment of the culture. But I just, I mean, at first I was surprised how Paul linked resisting complaining to living blameless. But complaining, I mean, it holds our heart in bondage. And we get stuck in that small bubble of how bad that person is. That one characteristic of that person that we're close to in our family, our marriage, our children, our workplace. That guy that does that. We get stuck in it. And it actually binds our heart. And it freezes us, so to speak, so we don't go forward in our spiritual life and growing. And Paul said, this is serious. This will damage your relationships. You'll live blameless if you will continue to resist the spirit of complaining. Now, paragraph one under that, I just got a few definitions of complaining. It's a mindset. Now, understand this. Complaining is a mindset. It's not a personality. And the reason that's important, some people say, well, you know me, I'm just a complainer. I go, no, that's a wrong concept. I was just born that way. It's not an intrinsic to a personality. It's a mindset. It's a mindset that we cultivate. Now, true, most people grow up in a family culture of which complaining is the family culture. And you could add the word sarcasm or anger. So when you're raised in a family culture of anger, sarcasm, and complaining, which are all like twins or cousins or something, they're all related. They're all nearly the same thing. It's natural then to have that mindset. Plus, we're born as sinners, and so it's just natural to our fallen understanding. But the good news is it's not intrinsic to your personality. Anybody can change it if they want to. I talked about the 1973 when I, that year in the rehab centers, I didn't sign up to change it. I couldn't help but confront the smallness of my petty annoyances, which were really big before that year, and they just got smaller and smaller. I mean, I still struggle with them. They're not all gone, but they're way smaller the more clearly I see the big story of what my life is about. So anybody can change this mindset, and it's never too late to change it. And so don't be by the lie that I'm stuck in this and I can't get out of it. No, you might have a bigger challenge than somebody else because you've done it for more years, and it's a pattern of your thinking, but it can be challenged, and you can get free of it, but it will take time. Number one here, complaining is a mindset that focuses on the negative more than positive. Everybody knows that, but the negative is typically, it's a characteristic, it's a fault in somebody you're relating to, or maybe it's a couple faults. But even that person you're relating to, more times than not, they have a lot more virtues than those one or two faults. But the faults, by just the nature of being human, they dominate our mindset. They dominate our focus. They're front and center. The faults are, and the virtues of that person, we lose sight of them. God doesn't lose sight of them, but we do. And the Lord's saying, I want you to see that person, that spouse, that child, that co-worker, that friend. I want you to see that person like I see that person. And I want you to tell that person how I see them, because they don't even know how I see them. They're stuck in probably more times than not in the lies about their life as well, because the negative deficiencies of our life are not the truth about, the whole truth about who we are. But our natural way is to see the struggle of the circumstance, or to see the negative deficiency in a person's life, and make it not the whole truth, but to make it the primary truth about that person, or about our life. And it's not the primary truth about that person. It is true, they have that deficiency, that fault, but it isn't the big storyline about them. And I find out that when I can tap into the big storyline of that person, that loved one, man, my attitude changes entirely. I see them in a different context than just as a person that has a fault. And then you can appreciate them. That prayer I love to pray, one of my favorite prayers, Lord, let me see what you see and feel what you feel. And you know, about my spouse, my children, my friends, my co-workers, my enemies, let me see what you see and feel what you feel about this difficult situation, about my life, about America, about the future. And I tell you, that one simple prayer will just cause a whole different mindset to little by little emerge. It doesn't emerge instantly. And we're all in process. I mean, most of you are aware of the things I'm saying, but we need to keep inching forward in the right direction, and our hearts get become more and more liberated. Number two, complaining is based on feeling we deserve to be treated better than we're being treated. That is one of the most common emotions in the whole of human history. I deserve to be treated a little bit better than I'm being treated. I think God should treat me a little better. Lord, I've been dedicated to you for these years, and I've been serving you, and I'm making no impact, and nobody's helping me, and you're not opening doors, and I got troubles, and I mean, come on, Lord. I deserve a little bit better treatment. And my spouse, and my children, and my parents, and my friends, and my co-workers, and the ministry people, they should be treating me a little better than this. Beloved, it might be true that you might deserve to be treated a little better or something, but you let that mindset settle into you. It will absolutely hold you in bondage. It will strangle your spiritual life. It is bitterness. It's the early seeds of bitterness. There is no liberty in that mindset. You could even, you know, push hard and get them to treat you a little better for a minute, but at the end of the day, if they treat you a little better, but you have that attitude, you've still got chains and bonds in your heart that are going to get you the next time around somebody doesn't treat you right. Complaining number three, it emphasizes what we don't have instead of what we do have. I need more money. I need more impact. I need more cooperation. I need more favor. Lord says, okay, I get all that, but you're a son of the resurrection. You're in my family. I delight in you. I have a plan for you forever. People are all around the earth. You're a part of this whole great storyline, and there's so much going on. Everything you do lasts forever when you do it in obedience. You got a whole lot more going than you think. Yeah, I know, but I need a little bit more money right now, and I need that one person to be a little nicer to me now, because I live with them, and they need to be nicer starting now, and it is true. They need to be nicer starting now, but you're not going to give away your inheritance in God and to give up your heart for it, because you got a lot more. The storyline of what you have is far bigger than what you don't have. And again, I get stuck in what I don't have, but I stop. I go, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. That's death. There's no future in that mindset. I may be able to win the argument, but there is no liberty in that mindset. Paragraph three, again, I said complaining is based on idealism. How good are relationships? This relationship should be way better. Well, it probably should be a little better and could be, but idealism is what fuels complaining. We live, we have, probably all of us have an elements of idealism, still pockets of it, because we're, it's intrinsic to who we are to have these pictures of how good life should be. And when that idealism tells us, it ought to be, it ought to be, it ought to be, better this way, that way. We can lose sight of the gratitude so quickly. I'm just kind of saying the same thing in different ways. Paragraph four, now the problem when we complain, we're giving expression, we're giving voice to the accuser. Satan is called the accuser. He accuses us night and day. He accuses God night and day. And when we complain, we're actually giving voice to the accuser. And when we give voice to the accuser, it has impact in our life. You know, one guy says, I'm getting it off my chest. That's, I'm just venting to get off my chest. And my answer is, no, it doesn't work that way. When you speak it, it gets more embedded in your emotions. You don't speak negative and get it off your chest. Now, if you speak it to a person and you come to a resolution together, and you know, he acknowledges this, you acknowledge that, you come to a resolution and peace in a relationship, yes, you get it off your chest. But just the natural criticisms, the vocalizing of our annoyances and frustrations with people and things doesn't make it go away. It actually embeds it a little bit deeper in our emotions. What we speak impacts our emotions more than what anybody else speaks. You might think that guy over there has the most impact what he says, but actually it's what you say that impacts your emotions even more than what anybody else says. And it's so common for us to just have a life of venting. I mean, I don't mean all day, every day, but the enemy's arguments against us and other people in God, and they're embedding deeper in our emotions. And then our spirit is dulled, and we're defiled, and we're bound up, and we're stuck, and we're not happy, and we're looking for a breakthrough, and we're wondering how it happened. I can tell you how it happened. Quit giving the enemy airspace in your own airtime, in your own soul. It will defile you. It will burden you. It will dull you. Don't give him airtime. Don't say what he says. Go the other direction. Don't let the small frustration compared to the big picture of your life, or the small deficiency in the person compared to the whole story of their life, don't let that be the dominating narrative that you're involved in. Yes, you can acknowledge that things are wrong and hard, but we take a step back, and we see them as a painful, real, but small part of a far bigger story. And I tell you, it's huge what it does to our lives if we move in that direction. I have paragraph B here. Foundational to a strong family life is cultivating a mindset of gratitude. Foundational to a strong spiritual life. Foundation to strong friendships. Foundation to a happy family life is this intentional. It's not automatic. If you wait for the Lord to drop, airdrop it down on you, it's not going to happen. It's intentional. We take a step back. We acknowledge the frustrations, the challenges. But then we acknowledge they're a small part of a far bigger story that we're graciously, gloriously a part that has our name all through the story, and it's under the Lord's leadership. Paragraph C. Let's look at Philippians chapter 4. We'll just look at this for a few moments. Here, just on the first side, we won't look at the second page, but those are just notes you can take with you if you want to read them later. Now Paul moves from Philippians 2. He's talking about complaining. Now he goes over to Philippians 4, and he's talking about gratitude. He says in Philippians 4, verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Now rejoice in the Lord is the same as gratitude. It's the same as give thanks. It's the same as praise. So you could say praise, give thanks, be grateful, or rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Don't reduce this to four minutes at a worship service. When that one song comes on, you rejoice in the Lord. Okay, I did that today. It's not just a four-minute thing at an upbeat song. That's okay to get excited at an upbeat song. But this is way bigger than responding to the music and the rhythm and the beat of a worship song. The word, the operative word, is always. And I mean, and none of us do it always. But Paul, I mean, he has these strong words. Do it always, like he said. He says, do about complaining. Get rid of complaining. 100% he talks about. He says, do all things without complaining. All things? And here he says, do all things rejoicing with the spirit of gratitude is the idea. It doesn't mean that you're verbalizing, praise God, praise God, praise God all day long and annoying everybody around you. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about a mindset. That you're engaging with the Lord. I don't mean every minute, every day. But you're not disengaged. You're facing the frustration. You're facing the deficiency in somebody's life or your own life. A failure, a fault in someone's life or your own life. And the Lord says, engage with me. Don't draw back. Don't just give up under condemnation. Don't lash out in frustration to that friend or family member. Engage with me. Always get my narrative. Rejoice. And the Lord always have a God-centered narrative. Enter into the God story of what's going on. Always. And then look at your failure, your frustration, your challenges through the lens of the big picture of the God story of your life. That's what he's saying here when he says, rejoice in the Lord always. Verse 5 he says, let gentleness, your gentleness be known, your graciousness to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. There it is again. Those absolute words. Be anxious for nothing. Don't yield to criticism and annoyance. Don't give yourself to it ever. Don't go there. Fight it like an enemy is what he's saying. But in everything. There's another one of those big words. Everything. Always. Nothing. These are big words like Paul. What are you saying? He goes, I'm telling you to declare all out war on this issue in your spiritual life. He used all the way through Philippians. Always. Nothing. Everything. These big all-inclusive 100% words. Words that speak about, do it all the time. Don't be casual about this area in your life is what he's saying. In everything. Wow. By prayer. By everything. Call God into the situation, but do it with gratitude. Not necessarily gratitude related to the prayer request. Maybe you have gratitude. No, but in a spirit of gratitude of God's leadership in your life. That's what he's talking about. He's not just saying make a prayer request and thank God he's going to answer it. There's an element of truth to that. But he's saying, whatever you're praying to call God into the negative situation to change it. Stop and reconnect with a spirit of gratitude to the storyline that you're a part of under his leadership. Don't lose the thanksgiving part. The gratitude part. Let your request be made known to God. Call God into the situation. What he's saying. Verse 7, In the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your mind and your heart through Christ Jesus. So let's just look at a couple of these phrases for the next few moments. Then ask the Lord to touch us. Paragraph 1 it says, Rejoice in the Lord. So again what he's telling us to do is see the big picture. Rejoice in the Lord always. Have a God-centered paradigm about our life. Again there's frustrations in our circumstances. There's faults and deficiencies in the people we're relating to. Failures in our own life and character. All of them. And he's saying, before you go further, consciously engage in the God-centered, the big story of God's leadership over your life. The big narrative that your life is a part of. Because you're not gonna respond right to somebody else's faults or your own failures or the frustrating circumstances if you're disconnected from the leadership, the gracious leadership of God in your life. So pause. Get connected. Get engaged in that mindset. Then proceed from there. You know it's like you're on an airplane and they say, you know, if you we have a disturbance the airbags will drop down. But first put your airbag on before you help your children or somebody else. Because if you don't have your airbag on and you're running around and there's no oxygen, you're trying to fix everybody else, you're going to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. What Paul is saying here in verse 4, I mean right here, rejoicing in the Lord, put your airbag on first before you go address all the frustrations and problems that you want to see changed. Put your airbag on. Get the oxygen flowing. Then you can be a help to the people around you instead of contributing to the frustrations of them, you could be part of the solution. Now rejoice in the Lord. It's again, I've said it already over and over, but it doesn't hurt to say it again. See what God sees about your life. See what God sees about the person whose fault is bothering you. Their faults, their deficiencies, their failures are bothering you. See what God sees. And I tell you what the Lord's going to say by far more times than not, that's only a small part of the story of that person's life. Tap into the bigger story of my call on them, their virtues that are growing in their life, and don't write them off because of that deficiency. See it in context to a lot bigger story and you'll have a very different attitude towards them. You won't have the tendency to just write them off and say, I'm finished with that person. The Lord says, no, I'm not. I put them next to you. Don't be finished with them. Don't go there. No, I just can't have it. I've had it up to there. I've warned them many times. This is it. The Lord says, but what about all the other issues in their life that are going in the right direction? The Lord hasn't given up on them. So this is at the very heart of worship, to rejoice in the Lord. Again, I'm not talking about a happy, upbeat song, though I appreciate happy, upbeat songs. This is a mindset. This is an interaction with God, having a God-centered paradigm of our life, particularly of our frustrations and our challenges and our failures. A God-centered view of how to approach those setbacks and those challenges. Number two, the next thing Paul says, he goes, the Lord is at hand. And what he's saying by the Lord is at hand is very powerful. Point. He goes, God's attentive. He goes, don't look at the failures and the frustrations and think that's the last word. He goes, God is at hand. His eyes are on the situation. He's listening. He's got a plan. He's working something. Don't think that failure in your life, their life, or the frustration is the final word. It isn't. God is at hand. His eyes are focused upon you. He's willing and ready to break in. He's going to overrule the negative for your own good. He has the final word. That deficiency in the person or that deficiency in the circumstance is not the final word. God is at hand. The Genesis 1 God is involved. And he's your father. And he likes you. And he's really involved. Talk to him. Don't live disconnected. Put the airbag on. Put the airbag on before you try to fix these problems. Now one thing I've learned, and again I need to do it better, is that gratitude releases the presence of God in our life. Because we're giving accusation and complain is giving air time to the devil's accusation. Complaining is giving air time to the devil's accusation. Gratitude is giving air time inside of your own heart to what God is saying, and what God's thinking, and his leadership. And when we come into agreement with God's gracious leadership and his plans, we feel different. And the presence of God increases in our life. Gratitude releases the power of God on our emotions. I don't mean you're grateful for 10 minutes and then everything that was negative in your heart is gone. But that is the counter act. Because gratitude is to come into conscious agreement with God's gracious leadership in our life. It says in verse, I mean number three here, it says be anxious for nothing. Again this big word that's implying a hundred percent. He says go to war against the things that create anxiety in your life. And the word anxiety, you could put the word the things that annoy you. The things that frustrate you. The things that make you despairing. Go to war. Don't accept them as the idea. Don't have, well I'm just an anxious person. And you might have a tendency, a propensity to be anxious, but Paul's saying go to war against it. Don't, don't be okay with it. Don't say, well that's just how I am. He says no. No, there's another narrative. There's another story that you're a part of. Consciously connect to it. Take a stand against it. Don't give up your inheritance. In a particular, your inheritance in God. Because anxiety, or being bothered, or being annoyed, those are all the same ideas. You can lose a lot in God. You know Martha, Luke chapter 10, Mary and Martha. You, most of you know the story of Mary and Martha. Mary was the devout sister. Martha loved Jesus a lot. But Jesus looked at Martha and she was complaining, how my sister's so devoted to you and I just wish she'd get up and go help in the kitchen right now. And Jesus said, Martha, Martha. There's what he said in Luke chapter 10, verse 41. He goes, you are bothered so easily. Here I am, God in the flesh, in your living room. I'm about to go to the cross. This is it. Next time you see me will be in the resurrection. This is it. And you're concerned about who's helping you set the table right now. I'm in your living room. Martha, stop. You're bothered so easy. You're so captured by the smaller narratives of your life. Take a step back. Take a deep breath. Martha, I'm Jesus. I'm in your living room. And anyway, she missed a huge opportunity. I'm sure years later she went, ah, what was I doing? Beloved, being bothered so easily. Annoyed. Troubled. That guy bothers me. That person at the workplace, my neighborhood, in my family, in the ministry, my friend. All right. The Lord says, don't give that too much space in your soul. Yes, you can acknowledge that you don't like this or that. Don't let it dominate the narrative of your relationship with that person or even your own heart. Martha, you're bothered too easily. Number four in the notes here, Paul said by prayer with thanksgiving. Again, we're not just thanking him related to the prayer request. We are thanking him that he hears it and we know that he'll answer prayers that are in his will. The thanksgiving is bigger than an attitude of confidence related to the prayer request itself. It's an attitude of gratitude. It's an attitude of gratitude because we're connected with the gracious, beautiful, powerful, wise, generous Jesus. And he loves us. We're his bride, his partner forever. We're connected with that story. That's what he's saying. Be grateful. In everything, give thanks. In every prayer request, because a prayer request is because there's a problem and you want to solve the problem. You want to call God into the situation because there's a deficiency. There's a challenge. That's why you're praying. He says, but when you're approaching a challenge and a deficiency, keep connected to the big story. Do it with thanksgiving. You are in a good position. You're in a power position with God. You're in a good position. God has the last word. Not that negative situation. Paragraph five. This is one of the great faith promises in the Bible. The peace of God will guard your mind and your heart. Now the peace of God is one of the most precious possessions in your entire life is the peace of God. When I go through my prayer list, I have this acronym fellowship that some of you are aware of. It's 10 different prayer requests for my strength in my heart. The very last one, the P fellowship, the 10th letter, the 10th in the acronym is for peace. I pray this prayer right here. That is so powerful to ask God for peace to be released in your heart because when peace is in your heart, peace guards your heart. That's why Paul is in essence saying guard this issue of having peace because peace will end up guarding you. Now notice that peace guards the heart. That's the emotions. But peace also guards the mind. So the peace of God will little by little, I mean it's not overwhelming every now and then it is, but mostly it's not. It's mostly subtle. But it changes the way I feel. That's the heart, the emotions. And it inspires the way I think because our natural way to think is the problem is the last word. And the last word, I have a plan. I'm going to break through. I'm going to make sense of this. That's the last word. But we don't quickly or easily have that mindset. And our minds are anxious and our hearts are troubled. And he says how can you live in a troubled world without this guardian of your emotions and your mindset? You need help. And it's called the peace of God or it's the person of the Holy Spirit. But beloved there's a strong link between cultivating the attitude of gratitude and having peace. Many believers don't have peace in their emotions. They're just agitated. And in their mind they're just always turning over. They can't settle down and have confidence. There's a positive victorious storyline going on because they don't take seriously this idea of resisting, complaining, and rejoicing always. Again rejoicing always simply means have an attitude of gratitude towards the Lord connecting with the bigger storyline. I'm going to have the worship team go ahead and come on up. The number six. He says I want you to let your gentleness be known to everyone. Now you can't your gentleness you could put some translations or use the word graciousness. You can't show graciousness to other people if you don't see the graciousness coming to you from the Lord. Whatever graciousness we have any of us for someone else it flows out of having understood we received graciousness from the Lord. That we understand we're a part of a kind and generous and glorious leadership of the most beautiful amazing man who delights in us. When and I mean I have sand I have failed my deficiencies I deserve to be set down put aside forgotten never used not in the kingdom in the lake of fire all those things he goes no no no no you're gonna have favor you're gonna be near me I love you I enjoy you and you're gonna enjoy me enjoying you forever in the midst of your weakness that graciousness makes me want to look at you and go you know what I'm gonna be gracious to you too I like this gracious deal I like getting it and I like giving it it's liberating it's powerful but Paul says in essence of this when you tap into this reality you touch it it will flow out of you it really will flow out of you and you will shine as lights in a dark world well amen and amen let's stand before the Lord