Turn to God with Thanksgiving

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Courtney Doctor
I am so eager to dive into Psalm 107 together, but before we get there, want to tell you about a time a few years ago when one of my adult daughters was really sick, and honestly, because of me, she actually almost died. She is an adult. She was living on her own. We lived in the same town, but she was living on her own, and I was out of town, and she kept texting me that she didn’t feel very well. And this all started on a on a Thursday, and I just figured she had the flu, so I told her to rest. I didn’t see the need to get overly involved, and to be honest, I was a little irritated with the number of texts that I was getting about how she was feeling. Well, I returned home on a Sunday, and on Monday morning I was catching up on my work, and she texted me again and asked if I could come pick her up at her job because she didn’t think that she could drive, so I did, and the plan was that we were going to just go back to my house. I was going to stick her in a back bedroom, and she was going to sleep, she was going to rest. So we swung by her apartment, and we picked up her dog, and we picked up some of her pajamas, and it was Monday, april 4, and I know that it was Monday, april 4, because that’s my dad’s birthday, and I didn’t want to call my dad and ask his advice. He’s a retired doctor, but I thought, this is his birthday, I’m not going to bug him on his birthday, after all, she only has the flu, but on a whim I picked up the phone, and I called my dad, and he asked what her symptoms were. I told him, and he said, Courtney, you need to take her to the emergency room right away. I did. Long story short, and a lot of you have probably already guessed this, but she not only had appendicitis, her appendix had ruptured several days prior to this, and when the surgeon came out after the surgery, he said not only was her entire abdominal cavity gangrenous, he said this is the worst case of appendicitis I’ve ever seen, and he was not a young doctor. She had to stay in the hospital for five days on IV antibiotics, and of course I stayed with her the whole time. And over those five days, she received great care. She received great care from the nursing staff, from the ER staff, from the attending physician, the surgeon came and checked on her, and as Shelby and I left the hospital five days later, we, we looked at each other and said, you know what, we should go back, we should go back in about a week or two and bring them some cookies and tell them how thankful we are. I mean, our hearts were just so filled with gratitude for the care that she had received, but did we, did we go back? No, we were like the nine lepers in Luke 17, you know, Jesus healed 10 of them, and only one of them went back and said thank you, and so why, why didn’t we go back and say something? Well, have you ever noticed that you have to instruct children to say thank you, to express thanks. Gratitude is not the default. Silence is the default. Two of my grandchildren are living with me right now, and we remind them all the time, say thank you. Here’s a cup of water. Say, say thank you. Here I click out the door for you. Say thank you. Why, why do we say this? Because gratitude is not the default. Silence is. Well, sadly, that is exactly what the Lord has to do with us. We are told over 100 times in scripture to say thank you, to give thanks. 34 of the psalms, that is 1/5 of all the psalms, command us to give thanks. Why, why do you think that the Lord has to tell us, has to command us to say thank you? Is he in need of our gratitude? Does it benefit him in some way? Absolutely not.

Courtney Doctor
When I instruct my children, and now my grandchildren, to say thank you, it’s not just out of some societal norm or cultural virtue, or because it benefits me in some way. I did it, and I still do it, because it’s good for them to be grateful. It’s good for them to be thankful, and the act of expressing gratitude is actually formative. Meaning that the act itself changes us, it softens our hearts, it opens our eyes. I remember a time early in my marriage when I was not characterized by gratitude for my husband. Instead, I was grumbling and complaining a lot, and a friend challenged me to make a list. She said, write down everything that you can think of that you are grateful for in Craig, and I thought, well, it’s going to be a really short list, but I’ll do it. But as I started writing, my heart started changing, it started softening, and lo and behold, the list grew and grew. Gratitude begat gratitude. This idea that children shouldn’t say thank you unless they feel it or unless they mean it. It’s not helpful. Our feelings are not a sure and steady foundation for anything. They’re fickle and they’re deceptive, and they have to be reordered. God does not tell us to give thanks when we feel like it. He actually commands us to give thanks in what, in all things. Why? Because he knows that this act of obedience, this giving thanks, even when, maybe, especially when we don’t feel like it. Giving thanks in all circumstances will change us. That’s what Johnny was talking about. That’s what Johnny was doing. Her words of gratitude came first. Did you hear? And then her heart of gratitude followed, and the order matters. Gratitude actually has the power to turn pride and entitlement into humility, bitterness into joy, fear into trust, and it has the power to turn our eyes off of ourselves and towards God, and what happens eventually is that our hearts will catch up to the words coming out of our mouths. Our words of gratitude cultivate hearts of gratitude, which is what the Lord desires from us. So open your Bibles to Psalm 107 and may it turn our eyes to the Lord in thanksgiving. We do not know who wrote Psalm 107 but we’re going to see that He gives us three reasons to give thanks: God’s redemption, God’s rescues, and God’s reversals, God’s redemption, God’s rescues, God’s reversals. So, first, let’s thank the Lord for His redemption. Look in verse one. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, that is the overriding theme of this psalm. Thank the Lord, give him thanks. And the psalmist begins with two reasons to thank him. Do you see it? God is good, and his steadfast love endures forever. The psalmist could have ended right here, and you and I would have had an eternity of things to be grateful for. This is all we actually ever need to be a people filled with gratitude. God is good, and His steadfast love endures forever. And it’s where you and I actually have to start, because if we do not know that God is good, then we are not going to be able to trust that what he’s doing is good, and if you and I don’t know that his love is steadfast, meaning his love is unchanging, it doesn’t waver, his love doesn’t increase when you’re grateful and decrease when you’re not, it doesn’t grow or fade based on based on your circumstances or your decisions or honestly your anything, because God’s love is based on His character, not yours and not mine, and if you and I don’t know that this unwavering, this unchanging, this unshakable steadfast love is what has compelled him to save us, not our merit, not our, not our worth, but simply because he loves us with a love that will not change and if we don’t know this, then you and I, we’re going to doubt, and we’re going to fret, and we’re going to grumble, and complain. We might feel entitled, we might despair, but friends, He is good, and His steadfast love does endure forever. So the psalm. Says, give him thanks. Who does the psalmist call to give thanks? He says it twice.

Courtney Doctor
Look in verse two, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those whom he has redeemed from trouble. Why do you think he starts off calling attention to this aspect of salvation? Why doesn’t he say, ‘Let those whom God loves say so, or ‘Let the children of God say so, because the word redeemed captures the costly nature of our salvation. Redeemed people are people who were in bondage, they were in slavery, they were in captivity, and they have been set free, but how, by their own efforts, by their own strength, did their captor free them of his own volition? No, someone purchased their freedom. There was a price for their freedom. The price is called the ransom, and if the ransom is paid, then the person is set free. They’ve, they’ve been redeemed, and the psalmist certainly has the redemption of God’s people from Egypt in view here. They were slaves, they were set free, but there was a price for their redemption. Do you remember what it was on the night before they were set free? Something died, the people either slaughtered a lamb and painted the blood around their doorposts, or the firstborn son died. And we know that this redemption, this deliverance, is a, is a foretaste, it’s a blueprint of our greater redemption, of our greater salvation, and we know that a much higher price has been paid. First Peter 118 and 19, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Jesus, Jesus is the lamb who was slain. You were redeemed from slavery by his, by his blood. Our deliverance was purchased at the highest possible price. And so, is it any wonder that this is where the psalm begins? Oh, let the redeemed of the Lord. Let those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ give thanks. And so, if verse one is the theme of the psalm, verse two gives us the proper response. What are the redeemed to do? They’re to say so. The NIV says they’re to tell their story. The CSV says they’re to proclaim it. I like the NLT. It says, ‘Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out. Why? Because expressing gratitude is good for us. It changes us, and God, knowing that gratitude is not the default. Silence is instructs us to open our mouths and give thanks, to say thank you, because he knows that our hearts are going to change, and they are eventually going to catch up with our mouths. So, friends, we’re going to do what Psalm 107 tells us to do tonight. We’re going to open our mouths, we’re going to give thanks to God out loud together, we’re going to do this five times throughout the psalm, so get ready, but before we do, before we do, I want to say something to anyone who has not yet experienced the Lord’s redemption or his rescues or his reversals, because in this psalm we’re going to see that there’s another way to open your mouth and speak. Four times we’re told that the people cried out to the Lord, and He answered them. So, whether you’re joining in and you’re thanking him for what he’s already done, he’s already redeemed and rescued you, or you’re thanking him for what he is doing, he is redeeming and rescuing you right here, right now, or you need to cry out for his deliverance, and you want to join us in thanking him for what he will do. Let’s open our mouths in thanksgiving and proclaim our gratitude to the Lord for His redemption. So, if you have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, if you have been ransomed from your futile ways with the precious blood of Christ, or if you would like to be, then raise your voice and say verse one out loud with me. It will be up on the screen. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Next, the psalmist calls us to thank God for His rescues after mentioning the forger. Directions from which we’re saved, east, west, north, and south. The psalmist focuses on four circumstances from which we need to be saved.

Courtney Doctor
These might describe four different groups of people, but most likely they are the same people suffering in different ways. And honestly, isn’t that just more like our experience? Most of us don’t know just one way of suffering, do we? We know a variety of trials. James one two says, “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter trials of various kinds, and we do, don’t we? I know that in a room with almost 9000 women, there are 9000 different types of suffering, well over 9000 different trials that we either have walked through or we are walking through, because this life, it is full of trials and tribulations and distress. We sing it all the time. We walk through many what dangers and toils and snares, and so the four that are mentioned here are not an exhaustive list. And while each of these groups has a literal and a historical reference, we know that these literal situations describe ones that we experience in this life, both literally, but also spiritually and metaphorically. So, spiritually, each of these scenarios just highlights it, describes an aspect of our salvation. We’ll get there. I’ll explain that, but they also metaphorically remind us of the rescuing that God continues to do in our lives, even after we’re saved, rescuing us from the various trials we face, and so we’re going to call these four groups the lost, the bound, the broken, and the frightened, and who here hasn’t, at some point in your life, maybe even right now, felt lost and bound and broken and frightened, so let’s consider what the Lord did for them, because the God who rescued them is the God who’s still rescuing today. Group one, the lost. Look at verses four and five. Some wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. And spiritually speaking, apart from Christ, we are destined to be aimless wanderers. We are lost people who need to be found, and even after salvation, there’s a, there is a sense of homelessness that is ours to bear. We are a people longing for a home. A few years ago, my husband and I put everything we own, all of our stuff, in storage, and we spent six months living in several different short-term rental homes, and it was temporary, but it was exhausting. It was unsettling. This sense of not knowing where we really belong, where we’re really called home, not knowing what our address, literally what our address was, created in me this deep longing for a home that in some way is a deep longing of every Christian, but there is another type of wandering, even for the Christian, even after we’ve been found, because we can wander away, not eternally, not eternally, but temporarily, we can still hunger and thirst for things that were never meant to satisfy us. Have you ever experienced that type of wandering, just as a Christian? Have you ever felt lost or aimless or weary, or just wondering where you belong? Well, look at what the lost in Psalm 107 did, and what the Lord did for them. Verse six, then they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and He delivered them from their distress. He rescued them. How? Look at verses seven and nine. He led them, who led them? The Lord led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in, for He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things. So He took their wanderings, and He put them on a straight path, and He led them all the way home, and on the way He fed them, and He satisfied their hungry and their longing. Souls, and this is such a beautiful foreshadowing, a picture of both our eternal salvation and our journey there. Jesus said in John 14, he’s trying to tell us about the home that he’s preparing for us. He said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also, and you know the way to where I’m going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?

Courtney Doctor
And Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. So here Jesus is saying, I am preparing an eternal home for you, a city where Revelation 21 tells us He’s going to dwell with us. So, at that point, instead of longing, we’re going to have eternal be longing. Instead of hungering and thirsting, we’re going to be fully satisfied, and instead of weariness, we are going to have rest. Jesus is the way, Jesus is the destination. He is the home that we’re longing for. And as you and I, as we make our way there on this narrow but good path, what he does is he takes our aimless wandering and he leads us. How does he lead us? He leads us through his word. He tells us, “My word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Proverbs three, he says that he is going to put us on straight paths. Psalm 23 he’s going to put us on paths of righteousness. He’s going to satisfy our deepest desires, as he feeds us with his living word, as he gives us himself, and he quenches our thirst with living water. So, how do we respond? Look at verse eight. We’re going to see these exact words repeated in each scenario. Let them thank the Lord for what, for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men. So let’s do that. Let’s open our mouths in gratitude and thanks. If you were lost, but you have been found. If the Lord has rescued you from aimless wandering and put you on straight paths, if he has ever satisfied your longing soul and filled you with good things, or if you want him to, then open your mouth with me, lift your voice, and say, Verse one, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. What about groups two and three, the bound and the broken? We’re going to consider them together, because they have a lot of similarities. Look at verses 10 and 11. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for or because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Skip down to 17 and 18. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of Tep. So one group is sitting in prison, in darkness, in bondage, and the other is sick and afflicted, and both are near death, and both groups seem to be suffering as a result of their own choices. Verse two was rebellious, and as a result, it says they are in bondage. Verse three was foolish, and as a result, they are suffering now. It is important for me to say loud and clear, and for you to listen very carefully to this. Not all suffering is a direct result of our sin or foolishness. Period. New sentence, but all suffering is a result of living in a sinful and broken world. You and I were created to take from the tree of life, to live, to flourish, but because of sin we are slaves to sin. We are sitting in darkness, in bondage, we are sick and afflicted, that’s who we are, apart from Christ, and sin continues to taunt us, even after salvation. Sin is a trap, it’s set by an enemy who wants us to sit in darkness, prisoners and slaves to that sin, to our own addiction. This enemy longs for death, not just to be a shadow, but, but to be a reality, and the brokenness of this world, our own, our own all of us, our own brokenness, and the brokenness of everyone around us causes so much suffering, not just physical suffering, but also relational suffering. Me and emotional suffering and mental suffering. Who here hasn’t experienced some of this? It is common to us. So, what did the bound and the broken people do? Look at verse 13. Then they, the bound, cried out to the Lord in their trouble. Verse 19. Then they, the broken, cried to the Lord in their trouble. Now, don’t look at your Bibles for just a minute.

Courtney Doctor
The only time I will ever say that. Are you at all worried that, because they were suffering as a result of their own foolishness, as a result of their own sin, that God would ignore their cries that he would reject them because they had rejected him. Well, look again at verses 13 and 19, because he delivers them from their distress. Look at 14 and 16, he brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death, and he burst their bonds apart. Verse 16, he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron, and look at verse 20. He sent out his word and healed them, and he delivered them from their own destruction. These are beautiful pictures again of our greater deliverance. Jesus has rescued us from the shadow of death. Romans eight and First Corinthians 14 tell us that death has been defeated, and now it only serves, serves Christ to usher us into His presence. It has no hold on us. Jesus has burst our chains, He has shattered the doors that imprisoned us, meaning they cannot be reassembled. Romans six tells us that we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free, and that is not just in the life to come, that is now, that is today. Jesus, the light of the world, brought us out of darkness and transferred us into a kingdom of light. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Look at verse 20 again. He is the Word who has been sent by the Father to heal us from all the sin and all the brokenness and all the suffering and all the darkness and all the bondage that you and I experience in this life, and he was sent to deliver us from our own destruction. Has anyone here been delivered from their own destruction, their own self destruction? I have, and here’s the good news for all of us who have been foolish, for all of us who has, who has, who have suffered as a result of our own folly and sin, the Lord is still answering, the Lord is still rescuing, the Lord is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in what steadfast love, and he delights. He delights to rescue those, even those on a hell-bent path, when they cry out to him. It’s what he came to do. Melissa read the verse from Isaiah earlier. He came to proclaim release to the captives and to set free the oppressed. And do you know what Jesus said, He said, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Indeed, let’s thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. If the Lord has delivered you from bondage to sin, if He has rescued you from darkness, if he has set you free, if he has rescued you and delivered you from your own foolishness, from your own self-destruction, if he has healed you of any type of sickness, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, or if you want him to, then raise your voice and say verse one with me. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. The last group are the frightened. Look at verses 23 through 27 Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep, for He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths, their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men. They were at their wit’s end. When I was in college, I spent four months on a ship, and the first night out to sea, we went through an awful storm. The waves were so big that I had a little window in my room, and the horizon would fly up past the window, mounted up to the heavens, and then the horizon would be a pause, and then it would fly back down.

Courtney Doctor
Into the depths, we had to tie everything down in our room, and it was terrifying, but I think for most of us, literal storms at sea are less common than metaphorical storms, the storms of life, the storms that come in many shapes and sizes, just like troubles, just like sorrows, just like trials, just like suffering, just like afflictions, we face a lot of storms: relational storms, financial storms, emotional storms, spiritual storms. So, have you ever felt just as if one wave after another is just hitting you, like you’re drowning, like you can’t get your feet underneath you, you can’t get your bearings, times when the winds of sorrow and suffering, or the winds of chaos and confusion and grief, when they just blow so hard that your courage melts. Verse 26 and that you are at your wit’s end. Verse 27 Have you ever been at your wits end? I definitely have, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. A dear friend pointed out to me that they were at their wits end, but praise God, they were not at the end of their faith, because what did they do when they were at their wit’s end? Look at verse 28 They cried out to the Lord, and what did God do? Verse 29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven. How can we not think about what Jesus did when he calmed the sea in Mark four, this is what it says. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling, but he was in the stern asleep on the cushion. And the disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? It’s a very ironic thing to ask. Yes, he cared very much that they were perishing. John 316 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His beloved son, so that whoever believes in Him should not, what should not perish, but have eternal life. So this storm, nor any other storm, was going to cause them to truly perish. And the same is true for anyone who has believed in Christ. Verse 39 of Psalm 107 Then he, or, sorry, Mark four, and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still, and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Want you to go back and look at verse 25 in Psalm 107 Who sent the storm? The Lord. He commanded the winds and the waves to rise. Who calmed the storm in Mark four, the Lord He commanded the winds and the waves to cease. The Lord can and does sovereignly ordain some storms in our lives, because the Lord can and does sovereignly use storms in our lives to bring us to Him. In the same way, it’s not always bad to be at your wit’s end. It is not always. Not all storms are bad, they’re hard, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. To paraphrase Charles Spurgeon, blessed be the waves that cast us onto the rock of ages, and blessed be the waves. I would say that bring us back to our desired haven. Verse 30, which is where our story is headed, to an eternal haven of rest. There is a day that you and I, if you are in Christ, there is a day that you and I are going to be around the throne, and according to Revelation 21 the sea will be no more, the winds and the waves will be banished, and you and I are only going to know still and quiet waters, and where are those waters to be found in Christ? He’s our refuge, He’s our desired haven, and friends, we will be like the psalmist said, we will be so, so glad, and so, if you have ever been rescued from storms in this life, if the Lord has ever stilled the winds and the waves, if He has ever given you peace and chaos, or if He has used storms to bring you to Himself and anchor you in Christ, or if you need Him to, then raise your voice and say verse one with me.

Courtney Doctor
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. We thank God for His redemption. We thank God for His rescues, and we. Thank God for his reversals. Read with me, starting in verse 33 He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. Those don’t sound like the reversals we want, right? We want it to go in the other direction, from famine to flourishing, from thirsty to satisfied. Not, not this direction, but we shouldn’t be surprised, because at the very least, this is a synopsis of the beginning of history, the beginning of our story. God created a beautiful world, and He placed man, the man and the woman, in the garden between four rivers. There were fruitful trees, there was flourishing for all, and because of sin, because of the evil of its inhabitants, all of that was reversed. The ground is now covered in thorns and thistles. It’s full of barrenness. It’s a thirsty ground, but is that the only reversal we read about? Well, thankfully no. Look at verse 35 He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water, and there He lets the hungry dwell, and they established a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield. By His blessing, they multiply greatly, and He does not like – they does not let their livestock diminish. Has the Lord ever brought beauty from ashes in your life? Has He ever taken a hard thing and made something good out of it. Have you ever seen fruit come from a place of barrenness? Because that’s what the Lord is doing. That is the trajectory of our story. We are, we are living in a story where it goes from death to life, perishing to flourishing, lost to found, broken to whole, bound to free chaos to peace. And so, if you are in a season of waiting for the reversal to go in that direction, hang on. Jesus came to reverse the curse, to restore flourishing and fruitfulness, and not just in the big story, but in your story, and in my story. But friends, if we truly want to turn our eyes to God in thanksgiving, then you and I need to consider not just that He’s done all of this, but how He’s done it, how He redeems, how He rescues, how He reverses the curse, and it is through the ultimate reversals. So, yes, Jesus rescues the homeless and gives us a home, but he has done so by becoming homeless for us. Matthew 820 the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Yes, Jesus satisfies our greatest hunger and heals our brokenness, but he does it by He, the bread of life, being broken for us. Luke 22 says, and He took bread, and when He had what given thanks, He broke it, and He gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, broken for you. And yes, Jesus satisfies our ultimate thirst, but only because He, the source of living water, was willing to thirst. John 19, Jesus said, ‘I thirst. Yes, Jesus sets us free from bondage, but only because He was willing to be bound. Mark 15, and they bound Jesus and led Him away. Yes, Jesus brings us out of darkness into marvelous light, but only because He, the light of the world, willingly experienced deep darkness. There was darkness over the whole land. Yes, Jesus delivers us from the shadow of death, but only because He didn’t deliver Himself. Yes, Jesus calms the storms in our lives, but only because He, like Jonah, was willingly thrown into the sea and remained there for three days, Matthew 12. For just as Jonah was there for three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And yes, Jesus reverses the curse, but only by becoming a curse for us, Galatians 313 May we thank the Lord for His reversals. They are our salvation, they are our redemption, they are our rescue. So, if you have experienced the great reversal, if you have received the righteousness of Christ, because He took on your unrighteousness.

Courtney Doctor
If you have received the verdict of innocent because he was condemned, if you have received his life because he gave up his, or if you want to, then raise your voice and say verse one with me. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. The love, the way the psalm ends, verse 42 The upright see it. What do they see? They see the steadfast love of God, and they are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. The wicked are the. Only ones who shut their mouths, who keep silent, the lost and the bound and the broken and the frightened, they all opened their mouth and cried out. The redeemed and the rescued opened their mouths and gave thanks. And friends, it grieves me to tell you that I have never returned to thank that medical team. But do you know who I have thanked over and over and over? My dad. Why? Because it was my dad’s intervention that actually saved her life, all because he answered when I called in such a greater way, in such a greater way, your heavenly Father answers when you call out, and He intervenes, He redeems, He rescues at great cost to Himself, but out of this unwavering, steadfast love for you. Look at the last verse, verse 43 Whoever is wise, let her attend to these things. Let her consider what the steadfast love of the Lord. We start and we end with the steadfast love of the Lord. It is what holds our lives, it holds our faith, it holds our hope together. Our circumstances may change, but the steadfast love of God never will, and so friends, turn your eyes to God in thanksgiving, open your mouth and give Him thanks, even when you don’t feel grateful, maybe especially when you don’t feel grateful, and you can start with these three things for your list: thank Him for his redemption. Thank him for his rescues. Thank him for his reversals. And you know what gratitude will be, get gratitude. It will soften your heart, and it will change you, and it will change me into women who are better able to see that God really is so, so good, and that his steadfast love really will endure forever. Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you. Thank you for your son. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your spirit. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you that you tell us to say thank you, Lord. Transform us into women who consider all of your wondrous works, and who readily, frequently, and cheerfully give you thanks in the name of Jesus. Amen.