Reading from Jonah chapter 1 verse 17 through chapter 2 verse 10. Here are the word of the Lord. The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish's belly. And he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your billows and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The waters surrounded me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer went up to you and to your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. This is the word of the Lord. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and I pray that as we dig into it, that you would encourage our hearts that you would enable us to, with more fervor, be a thanksgiving people, a people who have deep gratitude within our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. Pray that you would bless this, your people, in Jesus' name, amen. In 1636, right in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, there was a German pastor by the name of Martin Rinkart who had a very huge parish, and during one year alone, he lost 5,000 of his parishioners. Can you imagine that? 5,000 parishioners. He was burying, on average, 15 people a day. So you can just imagine the congregation there, the kind of grief and struggle that they had been going through, and yet he wrote, even in the heart of that time, he wrote a grace, a table grace for his children to pray, and all of you know this one. It is a hymn that we have sung that says, now thank we all our God. Excuse me. Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices who wondrous things hath done in whom his world rejoices. Who from our mother's arms has led us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours today. Now that was a thanksgiving, if you read his biography, that really did well up from his heart, but it was not dependent on his circumstances at all. Some of you have experienced a pretty rough year in 2023 and Gary and I in the defense have been praying for you. We feel for you We hope we can adequately minister to you. I'm just so grateful. This is a congregation that loves on one another so well I have just been blessed to see that but some of you have gone through really rough times. I mean my mother You haven't seen her in a while. You know, she's blind in one eye I'm very weak Very I'm very poor of hearing. Didn't think I was going to do this. I thought I was going to be joyful through this whole sermon, right? She's had enough health issues. She's rarely been able to sit out at the table with us for a meal for very long. And she really misses that. She misses fellowship with friends. And yet, when she prays, she is thankful for what she has. There are others, like Ken Howell, who have been homebound. And you all know how social Ken Howell was. It's very, very hard. Some of you have experienced far worse things in this past year. The death of loved ones. Even worse, the agony of broken relationships with friends and with loved ones who seem to have so little appreciation for the enormous sacrifices that you have made for them. And it can be very, very painful. There have been surgeries, job losses, huge financial losses and other troubles. And you know, it's very easy in those circumstances to begin to have a grumbling spirit and even to become angry and frustrated and resentful and even bitter. And honestly, on a human level, that is totally understandable. People would say that is normal. But I want to tell you that God does not want us to live in the realm of the normal. He wants us to live in the realm of the supernatural joy and love and peace that comes from His throne, and yes, even the grace of thanksgiving. And it is a grace. It takes grace to truly be thankful in circumstances like that. Not just a perfunctory thanks, but a thanks that wells up from deep within us because the Holy Spirit himself is engendering that thanks. That's what we all want for you. And this morning, I just want to examine one small facet of the supernatural thanksgiving that God can give to his people as we approach this Thanksgiving day, and it's the healing power of thanksgiving. And let me give you a little bit of background on why Jonah needed healing. and why that made it a struggle for him to be thankful. His bad attitudes are normal reactions when you face the kind of things that he faced. And his thanksgiving that I just read to you, that is not normal. That is supernatural. That is something wrought by God's grace. Jonah was suffering with what some people describe as being deep depression, and if you have never experienced depression yourself, or you've never had a loved one that's gone through depression, you might have a hard time even appreciating what Jonah has done. I've seen some people describe Jonah as being hard-hearted. I really don't think that Jonah was hard-hearted at all. He had compassion upon. Yeah, he was kind of closed off in his heart toward the Assyrians, but it wasn't all pagans. He was very compassionate to the Phoenicians. They were pagans and he could have just said, well, I want to die anyway, just let them go down on the ship with me. But no, he had compassion upon them. Whereas he was insensitive to the plight of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, he was very sensitive to the sailors, teaching them about God so that when they prayed to God, they knew who to pray to. They were praying to Yehovah, and they repented of their sins. So I don't think he was hard-hearted. I think he was depressed. Jonah shows several of the classic symptoms for depression, and let me just list seven of those symptoms. He withdrew from people and then complained about the isolation he was experiencing, right? It's very, very common to withdraw from people and then to feel bad that you're isolated. Second, he was downcast and blue, and people who have written books on Jonah speak of this as being an incredibly deep sadness, an overwhelming sadness that he was experiencing. Third, he felt overwhelmed with what God wanted him to do. It just didn't feel like he could do it. He gives up on his responsibility because he just feels they are too much for him to bear. Fourth, he sleeps when he should have action. In fact, in chapter one, you know, you got a ship sinking storm and he's sleeping so soundly that the sailors have to wake him up, shake him up, right? Now, weirdly, sometimes people who have depression can have the opposite extreme, insomnia, but sleeping, this deep sleep is one of the symptoms. Fifth, he shows no desire to eat. He's completely lost his appetite. Sixth, he excused his irresponsibility. Seventh, he lost all desire for living. He just wanted to die. In chapter 1, he insisted that the mariners throw him overboard. He thought that would end his troubles. He probably didn't dare to commit suicide. But he didn't have any problem with them throwing him into the sea. In chapter 4, verse 3, he says, therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. In chapter four, verse eight, he says, then he wished death for himself and said, it is better for me to die than to live. He was so depressed that he felt like he couldn't go on living. And chapter by chapter, God kind of forces him to confront those inner hurts, to confront the bitterness that had led to his depression. What was he bitter over? Well some of the reasons for his bitterness are hinted at in chapter 3 verse 8. This verse records a part of the decree that came from the king of Assyria, the king of Nineveh, where he called his people to repentance and the king says, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. So he picks out two phrases, evil way and the violence that's in their hands. to describe what was wrong with Nineveh. Now, if you look at all of the biblical evidence of Assyria, and you look at the archaeological evidence that has been dug up in recent years, you realize that the Assyrians were one of the most barbaric and sadistic of the peoples of the ancient Middle East. It was one of the reasons why almost all of the nations feared them. That was one of their tactics, was to scare people to death. Over the years, I've subscribed to various archeology magazines, purchased archeology books, and the Assyrian artifacts that have been dug up give depictions of the most barbaric tortures that they inflicted upon their conquered nations. Even during their leisure time, they like to look at statues and frescoes that depicted, I mean, they even have them in their bedrooms, that depicted torture. It's just a sadistic, gross background, demonic, really. Very, very horrifying. They like to skin people alive slowly just to relish the screams of pain. They tried to drag the torture out as long as they could to get enjoyment out of the screams. So it's very sick. You might cross-reference Nahum chapter 3 where it talks about all of the nations rejoicing when Nineveh is destroyed and it says, because of her cruelty. All of the pagan nations rejoiced at the Assyrians' destruction. Now, here is where it hit Jonah personally. This is only a hint of that, so I can't be dogmatic on that, but I think it's a very valid reading between the lines. If you read 2 Kings 14, you will find that Jonah lived in Gath-Hephir, and Gath-Hephir was a place that Assyria had attacked. And so we know how Assyria dealt with anybody that fought against them. making cruel examples of what happened to anybody who resists by way of torture. And so here's a possible reconstruction of what had happened. Jonah was one of the survivors who probably witnessed the cruel torture and slow deaths of many friends and family members, and burned into his memory was the laughter of the Assyrians as their loved ones were being tortured. It's just every time the Assyrians came to his mind, his emotions churned with the memory of ghastly, demonic cruelty. And it would take a great deal to heal Jonah of this pain and enable him to come to the place where he could love his enemies. And by the time he writes this book, I believe he has come to love his enemies and in doing so has conquered the hurts that brought him to his depression step by step. God brought Jonah out of his depressed state. And we can't look at those steps today. There are many, many lessons that could be drawn from this book if you were to deal with people who are depressed. For example, this book illustrates the principle that depressed people frequently need intervention. They're not going to seek help on their own. They need intervention. They're not going to figure it out on their own either. Jonah wanted to crawl into a hole. God was not going to let him do that. Jonah wanted to avoid pain. God helps him to deal with his pain. Jonah felt overwhelmed with the task, so God breaks down his tasks step at a time. Jonah tried to avoid action. God forced him to take action. Jonah sought to excuse his irresponsibility. God kept reminding him of his responsibility. He will not let him off the hook. God asked Jonah two times in this book, is it right for you to be angry? And both times Jonah and says, yes, I have a right to be angry. He's angry at God even, uh, in this book. And, uh, God points out in many ways why Jonah is only looking at the negative and he points out the positive, especially in chapter four. So in many different ways. God showed his love to Jonah by bringing him out of his depression. So I think it's a great book to train people in counseling those who are depressed. But this morning, I'm not going to look at any of that. I just want to look at one facet of Jonah's healing, and that was Jonah's prayer of thanksgiving. I believe, and I've experienced it myself, having gone through deep depression in the past, I believe thanksgiving is a God-ordained means of inner healing and strength that the Lord has given. Now, it may not make sense, but it works, and I've had any number of you tell me after I've encouraged you to do this, that this has brought a profound change, has been revolutionary in your own lives. Many people have testified to the supernatural healing they experienced as a result of persistent thanksgiving. First Thessalonians, Paul commands us to give thanks in every circumstance. Ephesians 5.20 is where people really get upset because he goes one step further and he says that they are to give thanks always for all things. And they just say, that's too much. So let's start looking at Jonah. Where does he start? Frequently depressed people have lost so much will to live that they can't even pray. They try to pray, but they don't know what to say. Their mind's not working very well. They don't know how to put any of prayers into words. Sometimes all they can do is cry out to God, help me. Help me, help me. During times like that, I think it is helpful to read the Psalms, or have somebody else read an appropriate Psalm to you, or you can read prayers that other people have developed. There's all kinds of good prayers out there. But it's obvious to me, in chapter two, because almost every verse of chapter two comes from the Psalms that Jonah had spent a lot of time in the Psalms, must have had them memorized because he wasn't reading a Bible in the belly of the fish, no light down there. But he had them in his mind. And the Psalms can be incredibly comforting because God is entering into our pain and he's allowing us, giving us permission to cry out our pain to him, but couples it together with Thanksgiving. And so if you've ever come to a place where you have a hard time praying, try praying the Psalms. It helps to organize our emotions, and many times our emotions need organization. They can often help us to jump off on our own spontaneous short prayer of our own, or even pray a prayer that somebody else has composed. There's lots of cool prayers that people are sharing around in this congregation. There's Puritan prayers in the Valley of Vision. There are other little books of prayers of Thanksgiving or the whole Acts, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. There's the Anglican Book of Prayer. There's a lot of good prayers out there. So prayers that are recited from memory or that are read can be just as accepted by God as spontaneous prayer. I really believe that. Okay, next question. When did Jonah start his Thanksgiving? He didn't wait until he got spit out of the fish. He didn't wait till he started feeling better. He didn't wait till he was delivered. Verse one says, then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly and he sat. He's thanking God in the belly of the fish. Can you imagine that? I mean, I'm claustrophobic, so I can't imagine being in the belly of a fish, but that slimy, mucus-filled belly, oh. But that's where he is thanking God. Verse 10 indicates, it was only after this prayer of thanksgiving that the fish spit Jonah out. The New American Standard Bible says, then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. Septuagint translates it, upon this a command was given by the Lord to the fish. So God wants us thanking and praising him while we are cast down, even while we're metaphorically in the belly of the fish. Two of the Psalms that Jonah quoted are Psalms 42 and 43. We're going to be singing one of those after the sermon. And both of those deal with depression, but they also show this author of the psalm determining with an act of his will, I will praise God. No matter how downcast I feel, I will praise God. He's basically grabbing himself by the scruff of the neck and saying, stop it, Phil, stop it. I'm going to praise God. I have much to thank him for. Now, I've given this illustration to you a few years ago, but since it illustrates this issue so well, I want to use it again. When I was a kid, my brothers and I used to hike up in the mountains of Ethiopia all the time. We loved hiking. And this one time, we were getting home a little bit late, and the fog closed in. And so we were going slow, trying to feel our way back. But we started hearing the howls of some of the dangerous animals coming out and we figured, man, we better hurry up. And so we started foolishly running down the mountain. We figured, OK, we know we're on the home stretch. Turns out later we were lost. We were not on the home stretch at all. And all of a sudden, as I was running, I was actually ahead of my brothers. I got tripped and I went sprawling, skinning up my elbows, my knee hurt, my hip. And I get up from the ground complaining to myself, and I look back to see what in the world had tripped me. There was nothing there. To this day, I am convinced it was an angel that had tripped me. Well, by that time, my brothers had caught up with me. And for a moment, the fog lifted just enough that we could see just a few feet in front of me was a huge cliff that I would have run right over if I had not skinned my knees, fallen down. Well, all of a sudden, you can bet I was thanking God for his providence. I was saying over and over, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for making me trip. Okay, my thesis for this morning is that God wants you to have that kind of thanksgiving for your painful experiences even before the fog lifts, even before you realize why God has brought the pain, the discouragement, or the difficulty. It is rare that God actually lifts the fog like he did for me to realize I'm glad I tripped. I'm glad for that pain. Why? Because he wants us to live by faith and not by sight. We're to be a people of faith. He wants us to be thankful in the fog and not just after the fog has lifted. And when we do that, God brings joy and healing, and he brings spiritual power. It may not make sense, but it is an act of faith, and God always blesses faith wherever it is exercised. And I think it is one of the steps that God has used as a God-ordained step, one of many steps actually, we won't get into the other steps, but of going through depression. Our act of thanking God when we don't feel like thanking him receives and channels God's spiritual provisions into our hearts. Just think of it as a tool of faith. We may say that, oh yeah, I've got faith in God's purposes, but if you are unthankful, I guarantee you, you don't have faith in God's providence. Romans 8, 28 has guaranteed that all things work together for our good. And if we truly believe it, we're going to be able to be thankful to God, not only in every circumstance, but for every circumstance. Now it doesn't mean you don't change the circumstances when you can. God has ordained sometimes these painful things to come so that it tests our resolve. Are we gonna change those circumstances? But they are there for a reason. They're always there for a reason. What enabled Paul and Silas to thank God in prison after they had been beaten and their backs were still caked with blood? Ephesians 5 verse 20 is a key verse that I think has brought healing and strength to me during those times when I've been in the fog and I have no idea why God has allowed me to stumble into pain. But by faith, I thanked Him, and He has brought His strength to deal with the pain. It's just remarkable. That verse reads, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he says there's never a time when we cannot be engaged in thanksgiving, giving thanks always. And he says there's never any circumstance that we cannot actually thank God for thanking him for all things. And you might think, well, what about that other person's sin? Surely God doesn't like their sin. No, he doesn't. But why does God test you by allowing those other people to bring their sinful attitudes and their sinful actions into your life? You might have to rebuke them. There's all kinds of things God says we should do, but it's not by accident that God has allowed it into your life. So this includes giving thanks for the difficulty you've experienced this past week. It includes even the most wretched times that you feel like you are in the fish's belly. It includes facing the pain of the past like God forced Jonah to do. And so the first step, we're gonna get seven steps and we'll get out of here fairly quickly, but the first step is to thank God where you can, even if it means reading somebody else's prayer or reading a song. Jonah was so depressed he didn't know how to word himself, so he uses words that somebody else had composed, and you could do the same. Second step, do it right away. Jonah thanked God before the herd had gone away. Jonah began Thanksgiving even while he was depressed, even while he's in the fish's belly. Third thing that can make our Thanksgiving a reality is developing an eternal perspective. We so frequently measure our pains and our gains by time rather than by eternity, and God shook Jonah free of that by making him face death. If you're about to die, That will make you start thinking about eternity, right? So verses two through five. I cried to the Lord because of my affliction and he answered me. Out of the depths of Sheol I cried. He had either already died, which is what some people take it, and God had resurrected him back into the belly of the fish, or it's metaphorical. Most people take it metaphorical. I'm not gonna be dogmatic on that. But he says, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your billows and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The waters encompassed me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains. The earth with its bars closed behind me forever, and then verse six describes the rescue by the fish, yet you have brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord, my God. So there is nothing quite like the prospect of imminent death to make you realize that the concerns, the frustrations, the fears, the hopes, the priorities that you've had in life, or even the things you've gotten bitter over are out of balance when measured by eternity. Moments before you die, you're not going to regret that you didn't manage to meet your financial goals, or you didn't get that house, or you weren't able to buy a yacht or sail on a boat. You're not going to get so frustrated that you were robbed of 200 bucks, or that somebody embarrassed you in front of a crowd. Right before death, the only things you're going to be concerned about are those things that will last for eternity. And I've seen this over and over as people are dying, the regrets that they have. Why didn't I spend more time with my family? Why didn't I develop a deeper relationship with God? There is those kinds of regrets. Thanksgiving helps us to have an eternal perspective right now because it helps us to look at life through God's eyes, and such an eternal perspective gives us kind of a habit of thanksgiving. It's almost like they reinforce each other. Thanksgiving produces an eternal perspective, and eternal perspective reinforces our thanksgiving, right? A kind of a circular relationship. And God's word says we shouldn't have to wait for death to think about eternity. We should always have an eternal perspective. We should measure absolutely everything we do, including work, relaxation, marital relations, you name it, everything we do by eternity. Jesus said, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul? The fourth thing that helped Jonah be thankful for that slimy, mucus-filled stomach of the fish was that he knew God was sovereign. You cannot thank God for all things unless you believe God is sovereign over all things. When he was in the boat, he knew this was God's storm, and he told the sailors, this is God's doing. He knew it was God's fish. He knew it was God's waves, both the literal waves and the metaphorical waves that made him feel like he was spiritually drowning. They came from God. He says in verse three, all your billows and your waves passed over me. So Jonah knew that nothing but the sovereignty of God could have put him in the fish's belly, And nothing but the sovereignty of God could get him out of that fish's belly. Okay. But Jonah also knew the reality of Romans 8, 28, long before it was written. Here's what he says in chapter four. I know that you're a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm." Now, it didn't look like God was that good, but theologically, he knew that God was that way, and it enabled him to believe so, to give thanks by faith. Thanksgiving also has the power to move you from self-seeking, self-centered idolatry into servanthood. Service is really important for overcoming our miseries. In verse nine he says, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Thanksgiving is hard sometimes. That's why it's called a sacrifice. Sacrifices are hard to do. They take work. They take energy, they take time. But in the verse before, he implies when we only do what we want to do, what's fun, what's easy, when we're self-seeking, we are idolaters and God's mercies never flow to idolaters. They simply do not. Okay, it comes to those who seek God, not to those who are self-seeking. So thanksgiving is the very opposite of being a self-seeking idolater, and God blesses that thanksgiving. A further benefit of thanking God is that it helps us to focus upon the fact that our emotional security and our help comes totally from the Lord. So often we get down because people have hurt us, or people have let us down, or people have frustrated us. But Jonah's focus on God's sovereignty helped him to realize God is the only one who threw him into the ocean. Verse three says, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. But he ends the psalm meditating upon a phrase that, when I first became a Calvinist, this was one of my life verses, salvation is of the Lord. Totally. Salvation is of the Lord. He would stop looking for salvation from men, from things, and from circumstances. Those were all bound to let him down and discourage him, and he would look to the Lord alone for salvation from some of his problems. Some of the most thankful people that I have met in my life were in India. Incredibly poverty stricken undergoing persecution and the thanks that poured out of them in worship was just phenomenal This past Tuesday. I read a poem. I think illustrates this so well I couldn't find the author of it, but it's titled forgive me when I whine Today upon a bus I saw a lovely maid with golden hair I envied her she seemed so gay and how I wished I were so fair I When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle. She had one foot and wore a crutch. But as she passed, a smile. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two feet. The world is mine. And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm. He seemed to radiate good cheer. His manner was so kind and warm. I said, it's nice to deal with you. Such courtesy, I sold him fine. He turned and said, oh, thank you, sir. And then I saw that he was blind. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two eyes. The world is mine. Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue. He stood and watched the others play. It seemed he knew not what to do. I stopped a moment, then I said, why don't you join the others, dear? He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two ears. The world is mine. With feet to take me where I'd go, with eyes to see the sunsets glow, with ears to hear what I would know, I am blessed indeed. The world is mine. Oh God, forgive me when I whine. Now that's being thankful that things aren't worse. You know, it's being thankful for what we have rather than what we do not have. Now one last benefit of thanksgiving is deliverance. And this shouldn't be the only point we focus on, but it was interesting that Jonah was delivered at the very point that he gave his thanksgiving. Verse 10 says, so the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Thanksgiving delivers. It doesn't always give us physical deliverance. Hey, even if you die, you're delivered into heaven, aren't you? But Thanksgiving gives us certainly emotional deliverance and spiritual deliverance from the things that are binding us. And I see this with Jonah. This Thanksgiving prayer freed him up to preach his heart out for 40 days around the city of Nineveh, in and around that city. God's work in his life enabled him to get past his depression. And by the way, I should mention, don't think you're alone if you have suffered depression. Many of the most famous people in the world, I looked at a long, long list of people who struggled with depression. Did you know Charles Spurgeon struggled almost every day fighting off depression in his life? I read this past week, of the 39 years that he ministered, he handed in his resignation 36 times. And his congregation wouldn't take it. They said, no, they knew that he struggled with this. And they said, nope, sorry, we're not letting you turn in your resignation. But anyway, there are ups and downs. Anybody can have these ups and downs. You need to fight against it. So for 40 days, Jonah mastered his emotions. He was delivered by that time. And it was only after Nineveh repented And God gives them mercy that he's thinking to himself, they don't deserve mercy. Of course, he's not thinking, I don't deserve mercy either, right? But Jonah's old thoughts came back and his depression began to return. And we have got to, this happens over and over to people, their depression gets worse because they've not learned to discipline their thoughts. It's a very critical part of healing. There's an old saying that goes like this, to praise God for our miseries ends them, to praise God for our blessings extends them. Thanksgiving is a powerful tool of spiritual healing, but we must use it. So let me just quickly review the steps. First step is to thank God where you can, even if it means reading or reciting the prayers of others. The second step is to do it right away, even in the midst of pain. The third step is to relate what you are thanking God for to eternity. Measure it by eternity. I mean, when you do that, the pain that we're going through really does diminish. The apostle Paul said that it's but a momentary and light affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us. Now, when you see everything that Paul went through, You know that's saying something when he says, it's a momentary and a light affliction. The fourth step is to remind yourself that God is sovereign over your problem. Now, since he's a good God, this gives you a rational basis for thanking God. If God is sovereign and good, it is rational to thank him that he's allowed those things to come into your life, maybe to test you. Meditate on his sovereignty and include that as a reason for thanksgiving. The fifth step is to take the effort to think of things to thank him for. Just try to make a list of that. I mean, he calls it a sacrifice. It's hard work. It takes effort. It doesn't come easy. Sacrifices rarely do, but they do pay off. The sixth step. is to not depend upon other saviors and other sources of security and to realize that God alone is your source of security. And I think too many times we look to vitamins to be our savior, or food, or medicine, or we look to the pastor to be our savior. Now, it's not like God doesn't use all of those means. I think he does. I think it's important you get nutrition. I take vitamins and minerals. They're all important, but here's the point. Those things are not gonna work unless God blesses them. So everything we do, we need God's blessing. He alone is the Savior, and He can use those means to bless us. So having done all of that, God has promised to deliver you. Now, it may not be the way you wished or the way you anticipated, but He will deliver you. This is exactly what He promises in Psalm 50, verse 14. It says, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the day of trouble. Notice the context. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the day of trouble, and I shall rescue you, and you will honor me. God will bring the exact rescue or deliverance that we need, and through our thanksgiving, we will honor him. God says, those who honor me, I will honor. And so I urge you, all of you, to begin thanking God for all things, even when you do not feel like it. Amen. Father, we thank you for the reminders that you give to us in your scriptures, that you are sovereign, and we have every reason to thank you. And forgive us for those times where we have grumbled instead. Forgive us for those times where we fail to look at life from an eternal perspective. Forgive us, Father, where we fail to glorify you and to realize that everything that you do for us is for our good, is working together for our good. And so, Father, I pray that we would learn the discipline of thanksgiving, and through that, by faith, to receive from your throne the living waters that fill us so full that out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living waters into the lives of others. And as we sing Psalm 42, I pray that you would bless the scripture to the hearts of your people as they sing it in faith. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.