Joseph Prince - Start Giving Thanks For The Good
This is an excerpt from: Unveiling Jesus' Heart To Serve You
What is natural, okay, for the flesh is not to say thank you, but to complain. That's natural. So we are learning about the flesh so that we know ourselves, and I just want to announcer to you the good news. Your flesh has been crucified at the cross and we are to reckon it so, amen, and live by the new man. See, last week we talk about resurrection. Our Lord Jesus rose 2,000 years ago bodily from the dead into the timeless zone, into a zone where he will never die again, that place that we're all created for because everything on this earth is temporal.
Everything that you see, if you can see it, you can touch it, you can feel it, all right, it is temporal. It has an expiry date. It is all passing away. It is all degenerating. It is rusting away. It is not permanent. But the things that cannot be seen, they are real, amen? They are real. The real you will live forever, amen? That's why there must be a place to house you, amen? When you step out of your body, you heart stops beating, you, the spirit man, lives forever. It is where you are housed, okay? "What is this, exercise, Pastor Prince?" No, this is visual.
For those who listen on audio, they won't get this, amen? There must be a place to house you. That's why people don't just disappear just like that, because why? When God breathed into man, man is a spirit being. Man will live forever, amen? So every time we come before the Lord, the greatest delight that He has, just as your children, is to see you enjoy. And sometimes you don't say thanks, but your joy should be in seeing that they're enjoying what you cook. They're enjoying what you bought. They're enjoying what you sacrificed. They may not know the fullness of your sacrifice, but your joy in seeing them enjoy what you did. And that's why it hurts when they don't say thanks. That's why it hurts when they push away that food that you have taken so long to learn, and study, and go through the recipes, and you know, painstakingly produce such a fine dish, and then they don't like it. It hurts.
It hurts when your husband says, "Hmm". How's the food today? "Hmm". Give you an "Umm," then you know. Hmm, amen? Open your mouth, lah. Brother. He'll thank you, amen? And by the way, studies have shown, and this is not from Christian studies. These are from scientific studies, and I saw one from Harvard University, and they said that people who are optimistic and people who are thankful, all right, they made a study, literally followed a certain group of people for some years and they found that people who are optimistic, people who are appreciative, look at the good points instead of finding fault, looking for the bad points, they live long. They live long compared to people who are pessimistic. And this study, actually maybe one day I'll produce it. And this study actually covers a span of many years and then they covered, regardless of race.
They took a number of people from different demographics and race and they put them together and followed them for a number of years, this Harvard study, and they found out that, you know, besides exercise, and the propensity for certain races and all that to a certain kind of genetic setback, you know, and different races will have different types, they said that all that aside, the thing that made a difference is optimism, amen, and appreciation, a thankful heart. We are very quick, ask yourself why are you so quick to find fault, amen? The moment Pastor Prince came out just now, you found fault. You found fault with something like that hair or whatever, lah, or the face, or the... you know? Why, why, why? Why are we so... you come to a place that you've been waiting for awhile to go for holiday and the first thing you look for is something in the room in the hotel that you're not happy about.
How about the many things that... the fact you are there. And that's it, you'll be a happy person. And when you're a happy person, your body will be happy also. It will respond with health and ease, because dis-ease is disease. You see, if you hear this part, you go home, you're a happy man. You're a blessed man. You're on your way, but you gotta watch this. And don't blame the person you're criticizing. Don't blame the object you're criticizing. Don't blame the nation you're criticizing. Don't blame the government you're criticizing. Don't blame everybody else but yourself. Ask yourself why do you have this propensity. The children of Israel, they saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God providing them supernatural food from heaven, the bread of the Mighty, the psalmist tells us, and they complained.
Every step of the way, they complained. And the consequence is disastrous. They died in the wilderness. The Bible says their bodies dropped in the wilderness. What's God teaching us from that one lesson? The main sin, it wasn't that they were running around committing adultery. There was one instance they did that with the women of Moab. There was one instance, all right, during the time Balak and Balaam, but besides that, what else did they do? Idolatry happened one time in the wilderness, right? The golden calf. But what else did they do? The constant sin they did was complaining, complaining, complaining, amen? And if you can, just say, "Thank you," once awhile.
And you know, you don't say thank you to people that you think it's their job. That's the problem. The pump attendant, right? You go pump your petrol, do you say thank you to him and talk to him like he's a human being for awhile, amen? Give him something, a tip. Tell him, "Go drink coffee," amen, with a smile on your face, amen? We don't thank the people that serve us food. We look at them, the man who's clearing your table at the hawker center, do you thank them? Uncle, thank you. Once a while, give something. We gotta learn to receive and say thanks. So Jesus says, "Mary has", so Martha came out complaining, right, and said, "Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me alone"? Alone. I always, when I say something like that, a song comes up.
All right, I do not know is it from the world of the hymn or the world of the end of the world side, okay? It's like, you know, everything has a song. And she says, "Don't You care that my sister has left me alone? I blame You. Don't You care? You don't care. My sister, she don't care. I'm the only one alone". That's the key to depression. Think of yourself the whole day, amen, blame everybody else, and you'll be depressed, amen? And you know who'll be unhappy? Only you. And that reminds me of another song. Only, Okay, anyway. So Jesus said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are careful, troubled about, anxious about many things".