Bayside Church Online | Saturday 18 September

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi and welcome to bayside church online we've got communion today so make sure you've got some bread and wine or cordial ready to celebrate communion together also i want to let you know about baby dedication so you can either wait till we're back meeting in person or if you'd like to have your baby dedicated sooner than that we can do that on zoom so the link is going into the chat feed right now or you'll find it in the notes on youtube just click on that and you can register one of our pastors will do that baby dedication for you well we're in for a real treat today we're going to have a wonderful time of worship together jimmy day is bringing the word and feel free to chat on on the various platforms or just sit back relax worship god and enjoy his presence today heavenly father i just want to thank you for every person engaging with us online today that lord you are with each and every one of us and i pray lord god that you will presence yourself so strongly with us today individually and corporately as a church community we pray in jesus name amen let's enjoy worshiping god together [Music] i search the world but it couldn't fill me [Music] a man's empty praise and treasures the face i never enough [Music] you came along put me back together and every desire is now satisfied here in your love oh there's nothing [Music] better than you there's nothing better than you there's nothing nothing is better than you [Music] yes i know that it's true [Music] i'm not afraid to show you my weakness my failures and force lord you've seen them all and just to call me freeze [Music] cause the god of mountain [Music] is the god of the valley and there's not a place for your mercy and grace won't find me again oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you you turn you turn morning to dancing you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares you turn morning to dancing [Music] you give beauty for ashes [Music] you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares you turn greys into gardens you turn bones into armies [Music] you turn seasons highways you're the only [Applause] [Music] oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing [Music] nothing is better than you there's nothing oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you you turn grace into goddess you turn bones into armies you turn seas into highways you're the only one who came you turn grays into gardens you turn bones into armies you turn seas into highways you're the only one who can you're the only one who cares you're the only one who cares [Music] amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see [Music] it was grace that torn my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved how precious [Music] my chains are gone i've been set free my god my sister has ran to me and like a flood his mercy raise unending love amazing grace [Music] you are amazing the lord has promised good to me his word my hopes seek yourself [Music] my chains are gone i've been set free my god my savior has ransom me and like [Music] amazing grace you are everything amazing great jesus the earth shall soon dissolve like snow the sun forbid to shine but god who called [Music] will be forever [Music] as we stay in this worshipful space i want to share a scripture with you around communion and this passage of scripture is from matthew 26 and it talks about jesus being asked where he wanted to spend the passover meal so matthew 26 verse 18 says he answered them my heart longs with great desire to eat this passover meal with you go into jerusalem and you will encounter a man tell him that the teacher says my appointed time is near and i am coming to your home to eat the passover meal with my disciples i think the wonderful thing about this scripture is that as it leads into that last supper meal which we're about to remember right now um as it leads into that space jesus desire is to spend time with his disciples communion means to be in close relationship with someone where you share thoughts and and feelings and those things are exchanged so it's a two-way street and as we spend some time at the moment meditating on thoughts and feelings that we have towards god i want to also spend some time thinking about god's thoughts and feelings towards us because it's an exchange right so i wonder if you would close your eyes with me um in this space and i want you to pause for a moment um with me and we're going to ask the lord to um share his thoughts with us about what he wants us to take away from this time of communion so let's pause for a moment let's close our eyes heavenly father i pray that you would help me to be so present with you right now would you quiet my heart would you quiet my thoughts and would you speak to me right now about the things that you want me to take away from communion what do you want to speak to me about as we spend time together [Music] lord i thank you that your heart is to commune with me and i thank you god that you have provided a way for that to be so sin doesn't separate us anymore because you are my savior jesus and you've created that way when you spilt your blood and when your body was bruised for me and so as we take the bread right now i'm gonna read from the passage in matthew 26 and it says as they ate jesus took the bread and he blessed it he broke it and he gave it to his disciples and he said this is my body eat it let's eat together [Music] lord i thank you for your body and all that it endured for me goes on further and in verse 27 it says then taking the cup of wine he gave thanks to the father he entered into covenant with them saying this is my blood each of you must drink it in fulfillment of the covenant for this is this blood seals the new covenant it will be poured out for many for the complete forgiveness of sin the next time we drink this i will be with you and we will drink it together with a new understanding in the kingdom realm of my father let's drink together [Music] lord i thank you for your blood that sealed that covenant with me and paid the price that i might be eternally with you in heaven [Music] i'm gonna hand back to the worship team now as we continue our worship amen [Music] let all the earth rejoice let all the earth rejoice he wraps himself in line and darkness tries and trembles out his horse and trembles at his voice how great how great sing with me how great is let's sing the first verse again the split of the king [Music] clothed in majesty [Music] let all the earth rejoice let all the earth reach us [Music] he wraps himself in lines and darkness tries to eye and trembles out his voice and trembles at his voice how great how great it is [Music] [Music] we'll see how great our grace [Music] engaged to he stands and time is in his hands [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] sing with me how great is [Music] [Music] [Music] and my heart will sing how great is [Music] [Music] [Music] how great [Music] my how great though [Music] [Music] my soul how great though [Music] from the top [Music] how great though [Music] sings my [Music] how great thou art how [Music] how great about how great thou art [Music] how great is our god how great is our god one of my favorite verses from the bible is in jeremiah i think he's probably outside at night and just looking up and seeing all the stars and he goes ah lord god you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm and nothing is too difficult for you whatever you're facing at the moment remember that truth nothing is too difficult for our god call on him and he will answer you he is as close to you as the air that you breathe he is great and he is mighty and he is wonderful well we're going to worship god with our giving right now and i just want to thank each and every one of you for your regular consistent uh giving of your tithes and your offerings to support bayside church and all of the ministries of the church that are continuing even through our restrictions and our lockdown i was just reflecting during the week on the verse in the bible where it says it's more blessed to give than receive and i don't know about you but i love receiving i mean receiving's great especially if it's a really good present or you know you receive an act of love from somebody else or whatever it's really cool to receive but to think that jesus said it's actually more blessed to give than receive and so if we just think about that for a moment it's really blessed to receive it's wonderful to receive but what a blessing it is to give and so i pray for god's blessing upon each and every one of you and thank you for your giving may god bless you and your finances and look after your house and your household as you are prioritizing the household of faith during this time so you can give in all the various ways that you'll see on the screen right now and uh and god bless you as you do that there's a couple of ways that we can serve the lord at the moment and if you're anything like me you've been watching the news and uh seeing the awful events unfolding in afghanistan the taliban coming back into power again uh the brutality of that regime we're just seeing you know the same stuff that they did in the 90s much of it is being repeated now which is just awful and so it's very easy at times like this to feel uh frustrated because you see this stuff happening over there and it's like well what can i do well bayside church has joined forces with christian churches charities and organizations right around australia in a program called christians united for afghanistan and if you go onto the bayside church website you will find under the events tab so you click on connect with church and then events and you will find a section there on christians united for afghanistan i have signed this petition on behalf of bayside church and i'd encourage each and every one of you if you're feeling uh really you know kind of frustrated about what's happening in afghanistan and you want to have a voice then i encourage you to sign this the call is simple and i'll read it to you as the australian church we are calling on the federal government to welcome a special intake of an additional 20 000 afghan refugees and support the ongoing welfare and well-being of all afghan refugees and their families so if you agree with that please feel free to sign that and we'll keep you updated as well about how you can get involved in that initiative but how about we just pray right now for the people of afghanistan our father who is as close to us as the air we breathe we pray for the people of afghanistan because you are close to them as well lord you know each one by name we bring before you the vulnerable the poor the displaced we ask you to be near to them with your presence and your protection be peace to those engaged in conflict and those who live within its shadow give us eyes to see how we can be a part of the solution strengthen our hearts to step out in solidarity with your suffering people and to speak boldly to those in power we pray the hearts of our leaders would be moved with compassion to respond in a just way may your kingdom come and your will be done in this crisis in jesus name we pray amen amen well that's helping the people who are in a different country but there are also people in need right here in our city of melbourne families of those who have been incarcerated do it tough particularly at christmas time and once again bayside church is going to be partnering with prison fellowship australia and the angel tree project have a look at this on christmas day many children around australia will fill their houses with joy and laughter as they open gifts specially picked for them but for some children this will not be a reality for children with a parent in prison christmas can often leave them feeling lonely and forgotten these same children also face great disadvantage year-round with many of their families experiencing financial hardship difficulties at school as well as the shame of their parents imprisonment prison fellowship's angel tree program seeks to help these children feel loved and remembered by creating a link with their parent in prison through a simple gift angel tree volunteers purchase a gift on behalf of the parent in prison which is given to the child on christmas day this simple gift makes the children feel loved and remembered and helps to grow the relationship they have with their parent we are currently taking expressions of interest from families or individuals who would like to purchase gifts for these children if you would like to be involved express your interest by heading to baysidecommunitycare.com what an amazing project angel tree is and i love the fact that we as a church are so willing to reach out to the vulnerable and the hurting and to just show the love of jesus to them and i think it's really easy for us to take for granted the fact that we have the ability to see our friends and our family at a time like christmas that we can enjoy a meal together we can laugh together we can unwrap presents together um that we can sometimes forget that there are kids uh in our community that may not have that luxury because one or both of their parents may be in prison and so i think that this is an amazing initiative that allows us to tangibly show the love of jesus to the vulnerable in our community and so if you want to be involved in angel tree for this year please head to the bayside community care website where you can express your interest while we're talking about bayside community care you will have heard over the last few weeks us talking about the online auction and i want to thank all of those who who bid and ended up winning and purchasing some wonderful items community care set a goal of around ten thousand dollars and at this point uh we've got a bit over seven thousand dollars has been raised so thank you so much for your generosity and again you can go to the bayside community care website and donate at any time and so i just want to say thank you for for tuning in today i'm really excited about this message you can see this is a little bit of a different set uh i'm beaming in from home uh being able to to share this so i'm i'm grateful that we have the technology that we do been a little bit under the weather uh this week and so the ability to do this from home rather than going in and you know maybe making some people sick i don't want to do that so being able to film and record at home uh i'm is pretty cool uh it's it's definitely different uh than being in front of a big camera so hopefully this goes okay i want to start today off by just asking you a question and that question is how are you doing and i want you to just sit and pause and take a deep breath and consider that for the moment how are you doing i know for me personally i probably don't stop and consider that for myself enough and it's probably a pretty good gauge in understanding why we might be having a reaction to to things that the way that we are i know that with lockdown and the things that you know as melbourne's in particular what we've carried over the last year and a half uh you may not necessarily know it on the surface but deep down there's some things going on and so it's good to just do a bit of a self-check-in and check your your emotional temperature your spiritual temperature all of those things and even just to check in with your mental health you know over the last couple of weeks i've noticed that in myself that i've probably needed to just stop a little bit and just do that little check-in and go you know what you're okay you can get through this let's let's deal with things one step at a time and one of the big things that has come out for me is being kind to myself you know when you're at home all the time and you you don't have as many outlets you know it's easy to fall into the trap of working uh extra long hours because you're just at home it's like well what else am i going to do and things like that you can beat yourself up more if you you know you sit there and watch an episode of a tv show because you need it for your mental health but then you go i shouldn't have done that you know that was poor you know i think at times like this we need to be kind to ourselves it's really really important uh that we that we do that and so i just want uh the whole purpose of just doing a check-in is to allow yourself to be real but also be kind to yourself you know if you're anything like me you can sometimes be your own worst enemy and worst critic and you know beat yourself up over different things but it's really important that we be kind to ourselves like i said over the last few weeks i've kind of been journeying this and it it started um in august where as a staff team uh we've we've just started the next uh step of bayside's discipleship pathway and as a staff team we did this next step uh together and in one of the sessions pastor christie uh led us through a prayer of examine and then encouraged us over the course of the week to spend some time in that space and you know doing a self-assessment a self-check-in all of that and it got me thinking and one of the things that it's really revealed to me is this whole thing of thankfulness and what that looks like i think that sometimes it's really easy to say the words but are we actually feeling thankful in and of ourselves like are we thankful for things or are we just saying it and and hoping that you know people might buy that or different things and so i've been really journeying and exploring this concept of thankfulness and so i want to unpack that today my message title is a posture of thankfulness and i've chosen the word posture for a reason and i'll talk about that in a little bit but i also want to look at some of the benefits of having this posture of thankfulness because i think that we sometimes undersell the benefits of these things we just go oh yeah it's good to be thankful but what are the tangible benefits of it and i've got i've got a few things that i'll look at towards the end of my message that are direct benefits but i also want to unpack what thankfulness is so let's pray father god i thank you for your goodness and i thank you that you are here with us wherever we're tuning in whether it's at work at home maybe out for a walk whatever it is i thank you that you are here with us and i just pray that you would speak through me today i pray that we would all be encouraged as we explore what thankfulness is and i pray that you would help us to have a posture of thankfulness in jesus name amen well i think about posture in general and you know you listen to health professionals or if you're a sports person and you're at a sports team people always say have a good posture and so what does that look like um i'm probably not the greatest example of good posture i'm very good at you know just leaning and and lounging back in in any chair that i'm in um i rock around on a chair a little bit um and it's quite easy to you know just walk around hunch the shoulders when you're used to doing that but the benefits of a good posture for your physical health is it it helps with circulation it helps with energy it helps with weight loss and but it also gets rid of the the aches and pains in your body so a good posture in a physical sense is of great value and it contributes to your overall health but also in the way that we interact the way that we we sit and engage with people it can convey good emotional health as well like do we cross the arms and and disengage or are we sitting there intently listening i think the posture is really important in our physical health in our emotional health in our mental health but as we're going to unpack today it's also really important to have a good and a healthy posture for the sake of having a deep spiritual health there are there are benefits across the board to a healthy posture and i believe that thankfulness is a posture that we can choose and that we should choose i think that this is a posture that uh you know we may not think about as much as oh you know have a posture of faith have a posture of love you know have a posture of grace and of mercy and these are all great things and we need to incorporate that um you know i i kind of look at it you know we talk about fight versus flight i think that there's a third f in there which is faith but faith being like a wheel and faith is is that middle part of it and all these other things other spokes and thankfulness is one of those those spokes and so i want to look at that today so if you've got your bibles or you're reading along we're going to be looking at a few verses in philippians chapter four and now one of the things to keep in mind whenever you're reading philippians is that paul was in prison when he wrote this so when you're reading some of the things and considering some of these things it's it's important to remember that he was in prison so let's pick it up in verse four rejoice in the lord always i will say it again rejoice let your graciousness be known to everyone the lord is near don't worry about anything but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in christ jesus an amazing piece of scripture you know there's a there's a few things that really jump out to me and and resonate with me you know i look at in verse 4 paul's repetition of the word rejoice and when we have a habit of rejoicing it conveys a confidence that we have in god and i think that that's really important not only that and in my bible i've circled it a few times the with thanksgiving i mean linguistically in the way that the language is used in english to say with thanksgiving it's not a you know a random thing it's a it's a key thing and i think that it's a key thing to unlocking the peace of god and i'm going to explore that uh a little bit more uh down the track um but i also love the the promise here of the lord is near like our god isn't distant he is near he wants to hear us share how we're feeling with him he wants to hear our struggles the lord is near church and i i want you to hear that today and and embrace that that the lord is near to us and so rejoice is the definition of rejoice is to feel or show great joy or delight and i love that so when we are rejoicing in the lord we are showing great joy or delight in him but not just that we are feeling that and i think that at times that can be the hardest thing for us to embrace you know we may not be feeling it but we we come to church anyway and we serve we may not be feeling it at home but we we we still show that and so it's it's really important that we get to a place where we allow ourselves to feel that joy to not feel guilty of feeling joy when you know there's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world there's a lot of stress and anxiety it's really important that we allow that joy and allow thankfulness which is a feeling that we allow that to really sink into us and to resonate with us it's really important that we position ourselves in a way that we choose to feel it and i'm going to continue to unpack that and it's really important i think that we can sometimes show joy show thankfulness and show thanks without feeling it but after a while i think that that stars starts to wear thin and so we we even stop showing it because we're not feeling it and so we really need to let that get into our hearts this feeling of of joy in the lord you know i don't think that it was a mistake when you read in scripture that the joy of the lord is our strength it's it's an amazingly strong thing when we can feel that joy in the lord and the way i read this this scripture is that when we are having that feeling of thankfulness in our prayer life when we are thankful for god and for who he is and for what he does that allows us to unlock his supernatural peace which surpasses all understanding and that's a pretty incredible thing you know you read on in philippians 4 and you you read of paul talking about finding contentment and i think that all of these are little steps along the way of rejoicing in the lord of recognizing and understanding that the lord is near but then also having that feeling of thankfulness and embracing it and so how do we how do we get to this place of feeling thankful i think when you look at this scripture we rejoice we remember that the lord is near and consider how you feel about that what what feeling does that stoke in you knowing that the lord is near we also read that we that we pray and in there we we pray with thanksgiving we pray with praise we pray from a feeling of thankfulness so when we pray when we present our request to god whether they're for us or you know petitions which is prayers for others when we are presenting these requests to god are we just saying the words because we think it's our duty to say them or do we say them from a place of feeling thankful of feeling that joy of feeling and believing that god is good and can do that and it can be really hard you know i consider my prayer life and i've i've really been challenged on that in the last few weeks i you know i i pray for a lot of the the same things each night you know i'm i'm thankful to god for for what he's done but it can become really repetitive and you just do it out of habit and so i've really been challenged to uh to i guess get in touch with what i'm feeling and go am i actually feeling this i don't want to be saying hollow words i want to be praying from a place of feeling thankful from a place of feeling the joy from a place of feeling and knowing god's love and so that that's really challenged me and i think for for a lot of us 2020 2021 have been tough in a lot of ways i know i've seen my inner cynic come out quite a lot uh i think that the isolation in a lot of ways has has got to me and even then i i recognize that you know marriage i've got m we've got sweeney and the bishop our two cats so it's not like i'm by myself you know i've got um people and animals here that i can talk to laugh with um all of that and there are many others that that don't have that luxury i completely understand that but i think that you know it's it's okay to recognize that for all of us there are things that have been tough like i said earlier about being kind to ourselves that's part of it is recognizing that you know what last 18 months have been really tough and that's okay you know we've got to feel those feelings and they can bring out past bitterness and and frustration we can get stuck in just seeing the negative we can get stuck in the anxiety and the fear and i realized that in me something had to change i didn't want to be constantly going through this cycle of cynicism and frustration i needed something to change and so through the prayer of examine that i talked about earlier through this scripture and and you know philippians is one of my favorite books and philippians 4 in particular is one of those passages that i spend a lot of time in because i'm really challenged by it but also super encouraged and so rereading those few verses reminded me of the importance of feeling thankful of having a posture of thankfulness where i embrace the things that i am thankful for that even in a storm even when things are tough even when we are anxious and fearful and stressed and angry we can still feel and be thankful so this has changed the way that i i pray you know i'm i'm really wanting to embrace that feeling of thankfulness but i'm also really wanting to declare to god the things that i am thankful for i want to feel that and it's had a profound effect and i want to re-read this scripture but rather than the the holman translation which is my normal go to i've got another translation i want to read here because i think it's really really clear on what the scripture is saying so this is the new living translation and reading verses six and seven don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all he has done that's pretty cool and i think that it's it's really important for us to to do that to pray to thank god for all that he has done we need to keep doing that when we choose to embrace thankfulness when we choose to feel thankful i think that our perspectives and everything in our life shifts as we praise god and be thankful the peace of god stands guard over us the peace of god stands guard over our hearts over our minds so the things that we feel the things that we see the things that we believe that peace stands guard over us and i really believe in reading this scripture but even in the practice of that over the last few weeks i really believe that feeling thankful having that posture of thankfulness is really important for that and and and helps us to feel that peace helps us to engage with that peace of god in those trying circumstances because we're not fixating on the negative things we're not fixating on the things that aren't of god but we're focusing on the things of god we are feeling those things we are embracing that feeling of thankfulness and i believe that this posture of thankfulness helps us to walk taller and it it it's just good for our mental health and so i have a few practical things that i think that we can look at and uh and apply to our own lives that will help us in reaching this posture of thankfulness so the first one make a list of the things that you are thankful for so consider it what makes you feel joy what makes you smile what makes you feel at peace you know think about those things meditate on those things make a list of the things that you are thankful for now i was talking to my sister earlier in the week and you know she's got three boys a five-year-old a four-year-old and a and an almost two-year-old and she i asked her to ask the boys what are they thankful for and it was only the almost two-year-old who gave her an answer and his answer was cupcake and yellow so i'm going to see what i can do about ordering some yellow cupcakes for his birthday next week to make him smile and laugh and i think that it's important to to recognize the things that we are thankful for the things that bring us that joy the things that you know help us feel at peace for myself you know i'm thankful for sunlight you know i've probably not spent enough time outside walking through these lockdowns but i recognize the impact that it has on me getting outside in the sun and just being there it lifts my spirits i think about technology like i said at the start the fact that you know i'm at home but i can sit here and i can record this it it's pretty cool but it also allows us to stay engaged with our friends and our family we can stay connected and i'm thankful that i am loved by god unconditionally that no matter what i do he's like hey jimmy i love you i'm proud of you you're a good dude and god says that about all of us that he loves us unconditionally and that he is proud of us i mean scripture says he refers to us as his special possession and i'm so thankful for that i'm so thankful that he just loves me and i don't have to earn it because inevitably i'm going to fall short over and over and over again i think it's also important for us to spend time in the word that allows us to get to know who god is to know his promises and when we know his promises we know what to look for in him and we know what we can stand on and feel and i'm thankful for those promises and i hope that you are too and i want to encourage you to go back and and listen to or re-watch pastor rob's message from last week where he talked about you know enjoying the bible it's important for us to enjoy the bible and i think that that helps with a a posture of thankfulness when we spend time in the word and unpacking who god is what he says about us the things that he's done for so many people i'm thankful that that god he loves me and that the holy spirit that he talks about the holy spirit dwells in each and every one of us and we have the ability to believe for miracles to believe for breakthrough to believe for healing to believe for these things but not just believe it and feel it but to actually live that out and i think that having a posture of thankfulness helps with that we also when it comes to spending time in the word a few years ago and some of you might be familiar with this and remember this we produced a book this is called the thankful project and there's a year's worth of devotions in that all written by current and former uh bayside staff members and and congregation members and they're really uh they're really inspiring and you know i've dug this up in the last couple of weeks and started flicking through it again and every weekend when you get into this you'll see that there's a there's a page where you can write what you're thankful for and so i think that that's really important not only spending time in the word but again it's that what are you thankful for that all helps in this posture of thankfulness something else that i've read about em and i've talked about doing and we haven't done that i think i'm gonna get us to do it's a thing called a jar of thankfulness and so every day um you know you would write down something that you are thankful for you date it write what you're thankful for um and you put it in the jar and then when it gets to new year's eve the last day of the year you go and get the jar you open it and you read it and reflect on the things from that year that you have been thankful for i i would see that as an incredible way to end the year but to also launch into a a new year of just that being thankful and what it what it does for us also i forgot to say with the thankful project if you'd like to get a copy of them they're ten dollars you can call the church office and ask for a copy and we'll be able to organize that with you there will be a mailing cost but you can do that i think it's also on amazon book sellers as well you can go and buy a copy of it there and so i think back to the jar of thankfulness in times of height and stress being thankful allows us to feel peace i think it's really important to also incorporate this feeling of thankfulness into our prayer life whether it's just starting with every time you pray 30 seconds of what you're thankful for and then progress that to a minute maybe progress it to to two minutes when you pray of of what you are thankful for it helps you get into the habit of feeling thankful but also recognizing the good that is in the world the good that is in our lives the good that god does for us the things that we can be thankful for and it helps us to shift our focus from the negative to those things and also tell others why you are thankful for them i'm going to set myself a challenge and i want to set you guys a challenge as well every day for the next week i'm going to send a message to someone and tell them why i am thankful for them and so i want to encourage you to do the same pray and ask the holy spirit to bring someone to mind and don't just be like ah i'm thankful because you're cool you know have a few things in there and go i'm really thankful for what you contribute to my life i'm really thankful that you stand by me that you support me that you encourage me you know really consider it and feel it and let that come out in what you convey to people and so to finish up church as a posture of thankfulness i think that this brings emotional mental physical and spiritual health so i did some research about the benefits of thankfulness i've added a few in here so i've got 18 benefits that cover emotional mental physical and spiritual health reduce depression improve self-esteem increase sleep quality increase energy reduce negative stress and help to cope with stress thankfulness helps us to develop a strong immune system to have deeper friendships posture of thankfulness decreases blood pressure and increases productivity thankfulness improves our job performance and helps us to become less irritable and therefore more likeable thankfulness helps us to reach goals faster because of our motivation it helps us to increase feelings of happiness and well-being a couple of big ones here thankfulness reduces negative emotions like anger and envy in us but also increases positive emotions of empathy compassion love thankfulness also helps to deepen our revelation of god and deepen our intimacy with him so church i hope you've been encouraged by this message today and i want to encourage you to to spend some time with god and ask him how you can be more thankful what are the things there that you are thankful for so i just want to pray before i wrap up father god i thank you for your goodness i thank you for your unconditional love for us and if there are people watching from home that may not have experienced this unconditional love i pray lord that your love would come upon them right now that they would know that in a whole new way and so if you're watching at home and you want to you want to receive jesus and his unconditional love for us i'd love you to just click the the link in the chat to do that and just say lord jesus thank you for dying for me thank you for your unconditional love for me i repent of my sins and i turn from those ways and i commit to living for you and holy spirit i pray that you would help us to have a posture of thankfulness that you would help us to to feel that to not just have it in our head but to feel thankful that the weight of the things in the world wouldn't bring us down but that we would able to be to stand in that place of joy and of thankfulness help us to communicate that thankfulness to you and to the people around us in the mighty name of jesus i pray amen well church it's been great to be with you and i'd love to hear your testimonies about this that if you've put into practice any of the the the things that i've suggested or maybe you know you've you've done that task of messaging people every day i i want to hear the outcome of that how it's impacted you but maybe you know how it's impacted other people so as you you know if you have a testimony about that over the coming weeks please email connect dot a baysidechurch.com so god pl god bless church here's pastor rob thanks so much jimmy wonderful message as usual and uh i am very grateful for what you've brought on gratitude there and that reminder that even though things are tough for many many people right now that there's so many things that we can be grateful for so thank you jimmy well that brings bayside church online to a conclusion for this weekend we hope you've enjoyed worshiping and the word with us feel free to stick around and chat if you'd like to be a part of a connect group feel free to email us connect at baysidechurch.com dot a u and we will get back to you have an awesome week we'll see you soon [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: Bayside Church Melbourne

Views: 47

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: bayside church, rob buckingham, bayside, God, Christianity

Id: wQEbSV_tShw

Length: 82min 49sec (4969 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021