More Than Bread

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The theme of this episode on gratitude is simply, be the one. It's based on a moment in the life of Jesus, a story found in Luke 17:11-19.  Jesus healed a group of men who had experienced the trauma of leporsy. But only one returned to say thank you. So my challenge to all of is to simply...  Be The One!

Be the one who always comes back. Be the one who lives by an internal gps of gratitude. Be the one who is never too busy to write a note or make a call or grab a cup of coffee with someone who has made a difference in your life...to not only tell them thank you but more importantly to tell them that you have told God thank you for them. It will change your heart, enrich your family, drive away worry
and anxiety. Because as we will find in this story...

Something special happens when we pause to give thanks! 

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Let's not forget Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is not simply a day in the season of Advent. And it's not just a day. It's a practice and there's simply some element of the wonder of Christmas receiving that we can’t fully enter into without the discipline of gratitude. One of my favorite passages on thanksgiving is found in Philippians 4:4-9. In these few words, I think Paul gives one of the most amazing anxiety-hacks in the world. Here’s what he says,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Let's be honest, we live in an age of anxiety, but what if there's a great anxiety-hack?

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We are starting a short series on gratitude, leading into an Advent Series. And first we turn our hearts and minds to some words from Paul in Colossians 1:3-14. Paul is thankful for his friends in the church in Colossae. He is thankful for all that God is doing in and through them and all around them. He's grateful for the gospel-fruit that he sees in their lives. What is gospel-fruit? You can eat it. :) But few things will satisfy your soul like seeing the good news bear fruit in your life and through your life. 

So as we dig into gratitude, I'm praying that you and I will become the kind of people who cause others to be grateful!

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Our look at Daniel has been an opportunity to ponder the question, “How do I thrive, not just survive, but how do I thrive when the culture around me is filled with chaos, turbulence and uncertainty and to make matters even more difficult, isn’t always friendly to my faith? How do I go beyond surviving to thriving?

And what we’ve found is that in order to thrive, we need a good and powerful God  as our leader. We need a faith that is faithful in times when we wonder if God’s going to come through. We need to incline our ears to God and we need to pray.  Throughout this series, we've uncovered some principles, some truths, some examples that will help us stand firm when lions roar and in this last episode, I just want us to remember… that when we know our God, the lion's roar ain't all that much!

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In the last few episodes, we’ve come back more than once to the importance of prayer, right? It’s fascinating to me that the two people most entrusted with God’s revelations about the end of time, the time of the end were both people of prayer; proven, persevering, you might even say gritty people of prayer. So as we come to the last chapter, the conclusion of God’s vision given to Daniel about the time of the end…I want to pray a prayer for you, for us. It’s a prayer based on the themes of the last 30+ episodes of Daniel. One of the verses that we did not actually look at that much, provides a bit of a refrain in my prayer. It’s the last part of Daniel 11:32, I like how they put it in the New King James version. "But the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. 

So the refrain of my prayer for you is this, "When people know their God, they do great things." That's my prayer for you!

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Daniel 11 is part of the last and longest vision that Daniel was given, or at least that he was given and recorded. But this episode is going to take a bit of a turn from Daniel 11 to the book of Revelation. Both Daniel and John are elderly men when they are given their visions of the end of times. And both Daniel and John are humble people of prayer. Prayer mattered deeply to both of them. So in this episode we're going to look at John's vision of a moment of multitudes of prayers coming before God. And what happens?

All of heaven grows silent. Listen in on how much our prayers matter to heaven! And then answer the question, "What will you do today that has more potential for breakthrough in your life, than prayer?"

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Daniel 10 has a unique context, perhaps more than any other chapter in Daniel's story, we catch a glimpse of the spiritual battle taking place in the heavenly realms. And in that battle few things are more important than prayer...and when we pray together, it's exponentially good. So ask yourself who prays for me? Who do I pray with. I have a team of people over 30, my prayer shield. They fast and pray for me. And if anything good happens in my ministry, the battle is won when they pray, not when I preach.

I believe that prayer is not preparation for the battle; prayer is the battle. And if we want to stand in this battle, we have to pray...together!

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Daniel 10 gives us a behind-the-curtain look at a battle that's been raging for millenia. It's a spiritual battle between good and evil, between darkness and light. Paul would later talk about this battle and encourage us with these words, "Be strong in the Lord." In other words, your strength isn't enough. This is not a battle against flesh and blood; it's a battle against darkness in the heavenly places. Sometimes we just don't believe that it's real, until we feel the touch of the darkness. Perhaps we feel it's touch in a set of tragic circumstances, or an opiod addiction, deep  depression, or maybe a habitual sin you can't break. 

Listen the battle's real. I've watched lives fill up with darkness. But here's our hope; light beats darkness...everytime!

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Our greatest barrier to a life that thrives is a sin-soaked heart. It keeps us from life and leads us to addiction. It ravages marriages and breaks families. It hardens  hearts and creates anxiety filled minds. It drains joy and reaps discouragement. It causes us to hate or even worse ignore our neighbors. A sin-soaked heart is life's greatest problem. But our greatest hope is that we are relentlessly pursued by a lavishly gracious, greatly merciful, fiercely loyal, patiently loving God. 

Perhaps itt's time to turn back and run like little kids to our Father's arms. 

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Daniel 9 contains a prayer of confession of sin. It's a deep dive into sin. I wonder if we often come to sin, like it's no big deal. Like, I know I've messed up once or twice but what's the big deal? In fact, think of how we use the word sin or sinful. Sometimes we put sinful and delicious together and describe our favorite dessert! Sinfully delicious. When we put those words together we are thinking less of our sin than we ought. When we have a desert view of sin. We start thinking about sin as the good stuff that God doesn't wants us to do or have. But in reality sin seperates us from God. It dirties our hearts, drains our joy and sucks the Spirit out of us. Jesus would tell us that we cannot fully comprehend sin without gazing at the cross where he died to pay our price. But as we gaze at the cross let this truth give us hope.

God is all-in on you. The cross was the love-burst of God and his love is dripping off you all over the place!